A federal ruling Friday to bar a third trial for Christopher Deedy was yet another blow to the family and supporters of Kollin Elderts, the 23-year-old Kailua man shot and killed in 2011 by the State Department agent, who was on assignment in Hawaii.

“It has been seven years and two traumatic trials later only to be faced with the news that this killer is now going to walk free on a technicality,” said Justice for Kollin Elderts Coalition spokeswoman Kalamaokaaina Niheu at a news conference at Iolani Palace.

The family has “repeatedly said that this whole experience has been incredibly traumatic for them,” said Niheu, who notified the family of the judge’s ruling. “Kollin was the voice of their family, and when they killed him it’s like they took away their voice.”

The family, which was attending the funeral of Elderts’ uncle Friday and was not present at the news conference, has not spoken publicly after Deedy’s two trials.

The coalition said that often with native peoples and people of color, if they speak out or act in the same way as whites or other races, “they face being killed violently and their killers never see justice.”

“After being briefed by a fellow agent that kanaka maoli (Native Hawaiians) were dangerous and that the word ‘haole’ in our own native language was the equivalent to the N-word, he replied that he would go everywhere he went in Hawaii with a loaded gun,” Niheu said. “After a night of drinking and club-hopping, he picked a fight with Kollin and shot him dead in the heart.”

Kumu Hinaleimoana Wong said the word “haole” is not bad in itself, means foreigner and can refer to a foreigner of any race. But the tone, manner and context used could be negative.

The coalition blamed the Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office for the federal judge’s decision Friday to bar a third trial for Deedy.

Deedy, 33, stood trial twice for murder in Circuit Court, both ending in hung juries. In the first trial, jurors were not given the option of manslaughter. In the second the jury found him not guilty of murder but deadlocked on manslaughter. The judge acquitted Deedy of murder but ordered him to stand trial for manslaughter.

The state Supreme Court upheld the ruling despite Deedy’s lawyer arguing double jeopardy, but a federal law allowed the case to be heard in federal court.

Deedy denied being drunk but refused to take a breath test for alcohol at the police station while being processed, a retired detective testified.

“We condemn the incompetence of Hawaii’s Prosecutor’s Office, who ignored the pleas of the Elderts’ legal counsel to pursue charges of manslaughter from the very beginning,” Niheu said.

“Charges of reckless manslaughter for wildly shooting his gun in a crowded restaurant or the possibility of extreme emotional distress as being revealed as incompetent in a fair fight were never explored,” Niheu said. “In fact, they were vehemently denied, forming the basis for this claim of double jeopardy now by the defendant.”

The news that the Prosecutor’s Office will appeal the decision did not encourage coalition members. “The family will never get back the trauma of the past seven years,” Niheu said.

State Rep. Kaniela Ing, also Native Hawaiian, said he was the same age as Elderts was in 2011. “It could have been me. He didn’t deserve to die.”

He said he pushed a bill that would have made it illegal for law enforcement to carry a gun while intoxicated or in a liquor establishment. It was made part of the internal policy of local law enforcement.

If elected to Congress, Ing vowed to push for similar federal legislation that would apply to federal agents like Deedy.