A 53-year-old man was killed and a Honolulu police officer injured Thursday morning during a shootout in Nanakuli.
The 53-year-old was identified by a source as Gavalynn Mahuka. Patrol officers arrived at his home at 89-555 Mokiawe St. around 8:45 p.m. Wednesday to serve him with a temporary restraining order filed by his sister-in-law, who lived in the house with him. The order warned that Mahuka possessed a sawed-off shotgun, might be mentally ill and used crystal methamphetamine.
Mahuka stayed holed up inside his house for about eight hours. He opened fire on officers at 4:45 a.m. Thursday, wounding a 21-year veteran of the Honolulu Police Department in the leg. The officer was taken to The Queen’s Medical Center in serious condition. A Belgian Malinois from HPD’s K-9 unit was shot in the neck and protective vest. Both are expected to survive.
Police opened fire, killing Mahuka.
A 31-year-old HPD veteran and another officer with 10 years on the force received minor injuries and were treated at the scene, according to police. All three officers are members of HPD’s Specialized Services Division, police said.
A nearby resident, who declined to give her name, said she heard police yell, “He has a gun!”
“There was a lot of commotion,” she said, adding officers told her and her family to stay indoors.
Another resident who did not disclose his name said he first heard about four gunshots, followed immediately afterward by about 10 to 15 shots.
Police did not disclose the number of shots fired.
During the shootout, he resident said, he and his family members “hit the ground” while they were inside their home and heard officers yell, “Get down, get down!”
Mahuka had walked in and out of his home multiple times displaying the shotgun, police said.
The SWAT team arrived shortly before midnight, and “police negotiators attempted to speak with the male, but he refused to respond,” HPD Deputy Police Chief John McCarthy said at a news conference held Thursday at HPD headquarters.
Officers spoke to Mahuka using speakers throughout the night in an attempt to negotiate with him to surrender.
The shotgun Mahuka used was not registered to him. He was a convicted felon and prohibited from owning a firearm, McCarthy said.
Police temporarily closed Mokiawe Street between Opuhe and Palikea streets and Opuhe Street at Haleakala Avenue during the standoff.
McCarthy said the officers involved in the shooting appeared to have followed protocol but have been placed on administrative leave, as is standard procedure.
A new, independent board will review all police shootings.
“This incident is a good reminder of how dangerous police work is,” McCarthy said, adding it is routine to serve TROs. But he said SSD officers are sometimes used to serve individuals known to be armed or violent.
About 16 hours before the shootout, Family Court Judge Brian Costa had granted Mahuka’s sister-in-law a six-month TRO against him.
She alleged that Mahuka had threatened to hit her Saturday, and would intimidate her and others by placing knives throughout the house while under the influence of crystal meth.
Mahuka’s criminal record reflects a history of violence dating back to 1984.
Mahuka, also known as Gavalyn, Gabbie and Gabby, had 14 convictions, three of which are felonies. They include an assault and two kidnapping cases. He also had four misdemeanor convictions for abuse of a family or household member.
In 2011 a woman Mahuka dated got a six-month TRO after he physically abused and threatened to kill her and her daughter. Upon its expiration she was granted a 10-year protective order.
Mahuka is the third civilian shot and killed in the past two months by Honolulu police, including one in Waipahu and another on the North Shore.
On June 1 a 55-year-old former adult corrections officer, Renie Cablay, was shot dead by a patrol officer at his Waipahu apartment. The officer tracked him down after he reportedly fled a car crash. The officer entered the apartment, thinking someone may have been inside with him. Cablay, armed with a large knife, lunged at the officer before the officer fired three times.
On June 23 police shot and killed Steven Hyer Jr., a 32-year-old Haleiwa man, after he stabbed a police dog with an arrow near the end of a seven-hour standoff. The incident began after an argument with fellow tenants over a utility bill at a multiunit house. An officer shot and killed Hyer during the stabbing. The dog, Zero, underwent surgery and survived.
Also on July 20 Big Island police shot and killed 33-year-old Justin Waiki at a police roadblock after Waiki opened fire, injuring a police officer. Waiki had shot and killed Big Island police officer Bronson Kaliloa during a traffic stop three days earlier.
