Honolulu police shoot felon wanted on warrants

Honolulu police shot and critically wounded on Tuesday a 27-year-old felon who pulled out a handgun and pointed it at officers who were trying to arrest him in connection with two outstanding warrants, police said Wednesday.

Dion Vincent Kitzmiller remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition, according to police. In addition to the two outstanding warrants, Kitzmiller was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, three counts of criminal property damage in the first degree, and two firearm offenses.

Plain clothes District 1 Crime Reduction Unit officers wearing bullet proof vests with “Police” written across the front and back found Kitzmiller along with two other passengers sitting in a parked jeep at about 11:30 p.m. on Hikina Lane in Kalihi, said acting Chief Rade Vanic.

As officers approached the Jeep and ordered Kitzmiller to get out, he drove out of the parking stall and struck four other cars. After the vehicle stopped, a man in the front seat ran out of the car while a woman remained in the back seat.

Officers approached the vehicle again and ordered Kitzmiller to surrender. When Kitzmiller started to get out of the car, he brandished a handgun and pointed it at the officers, Vanic said.

A CRU officer with 12 years of service fired several shots into the car and hit Kitzmiller in his upper body.

Officers pulled him out of the Jeep’s driver seat and administered first aid until Emergency Medical Services personnel arrived. The entire confrontation lasted 30 seconds to a minute, Vanic said. No one other than Kitzmiller was injured during the incident.

“The officers did react as they were trained to do so,” said Vanic. “They reacted to the threat presented them at the time.”

This is the third officer-­involved shooting of 2021. The Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney’s office and HPD’s Professional Standards Office will conduct separate investigations into the shooting to determine if criminal, civil or administrative action against the officer who opened fire are necessary.

“The Department of the Prosecuting Attorney is investigating this matter. No one from the department was at the scene,” said Prosecuting Attorney Steven S. Alm. “It is too early to say what the timeline of this particular investigation will be.”

Plain clothes Honolulu police officers are not issued body worn cameras and there is no police produced footage from the incident. Police recovered a firearm from the Jeep and surveillance video from a nearby business. Any incoming 911 calls and surveillance video will not be released to the public, Vanic said.

The gun is being processed by HPD’s crime lab.

“We are looking at including plain clothes officers in future deployments of body worn cameras,” Vanic said.

HPD is entering the fourth year of a five-year contract signed in 2017 that ensures patrol officers and traffic division officers are issued body worn cameras.

Per department policy, the officer who fired his weapon is on administrative leave while the shooting is under review. HPD does not release the names of officers involved in shootings.

Kitzmiller has eight prior convictions including six felonies for robbery, theft and drug offenses. He was arrested and charged with attempted murder in 2016 for shooting at another man in Pearl City but the case was later dismissed, according to court records.

In 2013 Kitzmiller was convicted of robbery after he used a silver-bladed knife to threaten and rob a woman and man of their mobile phones and six dollars.

Police had been looking for Kitzmiller since at least April 26 for violating the terms and conditions of his release following a kidnapping conviction, according to a Crimestoppers bulletin.

On Sept. 16, 2018 at about 2:15 a.m., a woman was getting into her car on the Windward side when Kitzmiller forced his way into her vehicle and threatened to kill her. She was able to escape and called police who found Kitzmiller and arrested him.

He was wanted on two separate $50,000 warrants for abuse of a household member, terroristic threatening and firearm offenses, Vanic said.

EMS treated Kitzmiller at the scene. It’s not immediately known how many gunshot wounds he sustained.

He was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

Neither the officers nor the two passengers in the Jeep were injured. The passengers were interviewed as witnesses and released.

Evelyn Gabaon, 54, who lives in an apartment on Hikina Lane said she was inside her unit when she heard five gunshots between 11:20 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. “It was pretty loud,” she said.

Gabaon left her unit and observed a sport utility vehicle, possibly a Jeep Cherokee, that crashed further down the narrow roadway. “It was pretty mangled,” she said.

Witnesses said the man was in the SUV when police shot him from the passenger side window.

Gabaon said the man, described possibly as in his 20s to 30s, sustained at least one gunshot wound to the shoulder and was conscious when paramedics treated him.

“Our street was filled with police. It was chaos out here. It was like in a movie,” Gabaon added.

She observed investigators recovering a firearm.

Police towed a light-colored Jeep SUV with damage to the front passenger side of the vehicle and extensive damage to the rear driver side.

Resident Clayrissa Souza, 23, was in her apartment with her son when she heard loud screeching noises as if someone was about to race off. “Then all I heard was crash, crash, crash,” she said.

Souza had a feeling her car parked near the residential building got hit so she ran outside of her home. “I just had the worst feeling so I came outside to check and then I just saw a whole swarm of people. And then I heard gunshots so I just ran back in the house and locked my doors and turned off the lights.”

Her parked gray Honda sustained major damage to the front driver’s side as well as damage to the rear when the Honda was pushed into a van parked behind her in the crash.

Another sedan parked across from Souza’s vehicle also sustained significant front-end damage.