FBI searches for gun in Kawainui Marsh

The FBI has enlisted the help of a team of six divers from Los Angeles to search in and around Kawainui Marsh for a gun used in an April 8 carjacking on Kapaa Quarry Road in Kailua.

The divers, with the FBI’s Underwater Search and Evidence Response Team, searched all day Tuesday and Wednesday in areas off Kapaa Quarry Road.

Suited up in thick rubber dive suits, they used metal detectors to search the bottom of the murky marsh alongside the roadway.

Located near the city’s Kapaa Transfer Station, where refuse is dumped, the marsh and its banks contain any manner of trash, castoffs, car parts and runoff, as well as the occasional wild pig carcass, of which a couple were seen Wednesday.

“We don’t leave any stone unturned,” said FBI Special Agent Jason White, the agency’s public affairs officer in Honolulu. “We’re going to follow up if there’s credible information. We’ve got the resources and expertise to go into these marshes and wetlands.”

The FBI’s efforts are also for the public’s safety, he added. “It’s not out of the norm for us.”

The firearm was reportedly thrown into the marsh by a suspect involved in an April 8 early-morning robbery and carjacking, according to White.

An individual in a car was approached by occupants of another vehicle, who got him out of his vehicle, and fired shots at the car.

“They beat and robbed him, and took off in his car,” White said.

Honolulu police and the FBI are jointly working on the case. The FBI got involved under the federal carjacking statute, White said.

There are three to four suspects and arrests have been made, White said, but he declined to release any names Wednesday since the complaint had been sealed.

Laying out a grid, the divers painstakingly searched small sections at a time. If they encountered a hit in the water, sometimes waist deep, they had to dive underwater to retrieve the item.

Others from the FBI’s Honolulu evidence response team used weed whackers and heavy rakes to clear and sift through the thick brush along the roadway.

The Honolulu Fire Department and police also supported the FBI in its efforts.

An assessment will be made today on whether to continue the search.