Hundreds rally for Honolulu police officers accused in fatal shooting

In front of the courthouse on Alakea Street, more than 300 Honolulu police officers, community members, lawmakers and union officials rallied Friday in support of their brothers in blue and called for the prosecuting attorney to resign or drop criminal charges against three officers who allegedly shot and killed an unarmed 16-year-old Micronesian after he led them on a high-speed chase through the streets of Honolulu in a stolen car.

Police officers, their family members and supporters donned black T-shirts with “Support Our Officers” emblazoned across their chests in white lettering, with SHOPO, the acronym for the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers union, stripped across the back. They packed the sidewalks on both sides of Hotel Street between Richards and Alakea streets. Others sported T-shirts that read “Back Dah Blue” beneath a Hawaiian flag colored gray, white, black and blue.

Many carried signs: “Back da blue, not da fool,” “HPD keeps us safe,” “Prosecutor Steve Alm should be ashamed,” “Grand jury not good enuff?” “Justice for HPD officers” and “Free dah 3.”

It was a passionate show of force by law enforcement officers and their ardent supporters in the midst of a local and national backlash against long-standing use of force practices and calls for more transparency, the elimination of racial bias in policing and more communication with the community about crime and policing.

“It’s important for the public to understand we just don’t have police officers here. We have private-sector unions, we have Back Dah Blue, we have private citizens, people who are concerned; victims of crime are here; it’s not just police officers saying they are standing up for their officers; this is an entire community saying, ‘We are standing up for these officers, and we support the Police Department,’” Nicholas Schlapak, SHOPO’s Honolulu Chapter chairman, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser during the rally Friday. “This is a new era for all of us. … SHOPO was silent on the side for a long time. We didn’t have huge press releases, we didn’t have rallies; we had a press conference after the grand jury made its decision. Like we said, we were watching, we were sitting back and watching. Now that things have changed, yeah, we’re coming into gear.”

Demonstrators cheered as a blue-and-white police SUV and van drove by the crowd with sirens blaring and lights flashing. Cars honked horns as supporters on the four corners of Alakea and Hotel streets waved flags and held signs facing drivers as they passed by.

Officer Geoffrey H.L. Thom, 42, who is charged with one count of second- degree murder in Iremamber Sykap’s death, and officers Zachary K. Ah Nee, 26, and Christopher J. Fredeluces, 40, each charged with one count of second-degree attempted murder, arrived to their initial appearance before a District Court judge Friday to a hero’s welcome.

Led by their attorneys, Richard H.S. Sing, Thomas M. Otake and Crystal K. Glendon, the officers, wearing face masks, aloha shirts and slacks, stared straight ahead as the crowd went wild, raising their signs of support and flags high while clapping. People shouted well wishes, and the crowd repeatedly chanted, “Free the three,” until the officers climbed the steps and approached the courthouse entrance.

“Geoffrey, Zack and Chris want to thank the community for the overwhelming outpouring of support. It is clear that most in our community believe that filing these charges after a independent Grand Jury rejected them is concerning, to say the very least,” wrote Sing, Otake and Glendon in a statement handed to reporters as they left the courthouse. “While we recognize the tragedy of this situation, we as their attorneys will do all that we can to prevent wrongful convictions in this case.”

The officers were charged June 15, six days after an Oahu grand jury declined to return an indictment after hearing evidence presented by prosecutors.

Sing, Otake and Glendon did not reply to questions from the Star-Advertiser about whether the rally hurts or helps their chances with a jury, whether they agreed that Alm should resign, or how the three officers and their families are faring throughout the criminal justice process.

Prosecuting Attorney Steven S. Alm said he is not surprised by the outpouring of support for the three officers.

“Most people in Hawaii support the Police Department. I support the Police Department. I’ve been working mostly with them since 1985, the last 36 years,” he told the Star- Advertiser. Calls for his resignation and criticisms raised about his decision to charge the officers did not sway Alm, who pledged Friday to continue to do his job.

“I’m a professional. I’ve been doing this for a long time. The voters expect me to restore trust in the prosecutor’s office. I’m doing that right now. Emotions run high when something like this has happened, and often people are making statements based on not knowing what the evidence is. I would urge people to wait until they see the evidence and then start to look at things in perhaps a different way,” said Alm. “I’m just going to do my job. I’m not affected by those outside things, but I understand. Police officers don’t want to believe that their fellow officers did something wrong or that the circumstances were such that they didn’t have a choice.”

He is not worried that passionate advocacy on either side of the incident will affect the impartiality of potential jurors in the case.

“Anytime you have a trial where a police officer is a defendant, jury selection is always a challenge because, quite rightly, most people support the police department. I think Hawaii is different than a lot of other places partly because the police officers live among us. It’s hard to find someone who isn’t either related or knows somebody who works at HPD. And that’s a good thing,” said Alm. “You can like HPD in general and support them as we do, but for people to be impartial jurors just like if a judge decided the case, he or she would have to set aside any personal feelings and just focus on the evidence. And I’m confident Hawaii jurors will be able to do that.”

“We continue to trust the judicial system, and we ask for everyone’s patience as this case makes its way through the courts,” said interim Police Chief Rade K. Vanic in a statement issued to news media through a spokeswoman. Vanic did not attend the rally.

“This is not the mainland,” said state Sen. Kurt Fevella through a bullhorn, facing the crowd with his back to the courthouse entrance. “You guys doing your job and you getting prosecuted for doing your job … this is wrong on every level.”

City Councilwoman Heidi Tsuneyoshi, chairwoman of the Council Committee on Public Safety, also addressed the crowd gathered in front of the courthouse.

She said Alm’s decision to charge the officers defies reason because a grand jury of citizens declined to indict the officers.

“This is a very unusual circumstance for the officers in the line of duty. I’m asking Prosecuting Attorney Alm to consider what he’s doing here. Think about what you are doing. … Let’s hope the right thing happens for the officers. We need to come together to support our officers and support our community and move past this.”

Union officials made 300 T-shirts and gave them all away Friday morning, leaving dozens of supporters requesting a second run of printing before the officers’ preliminary hearing July 20, when a second demonstration is planned.

Wayne Kaiwi, founder of Back Dah Blue Hawaii, coordinated the crowd’s chants from the front of the courthouse using a bullhorn to amplify his message. Kaiwi extolled the virtues of police officers and asked people to get behind the officers who live and work in our communities to keep us safe. He urged the crowd not to entertain the “opposition,” lectured the news media to only cover the “facts” and urged like-minded individuals to run for public office.

“That’s not three criminals; that’s three heroes,” Kaiwi shouted to the roar of the crowd while the officers left the courthouse, flanked by their attorneys and encircled by supporters, one carrying a large Back Dah Blue flag, who escorted them across Alakea Street as they walked in the Ewa direction.

Alex Garcia, a retired police lieutenant, also denounced the decision by Alm to charge the officers, saying if a grand jury reviewed the same evidence and declined to return an indictment, that should be the end of it.

“The grand jury had everything and they turned it down. This is liberal, Democratic grandstanding,” Garcia told the Star-Advertiser. “If our officers are wrong, that’s fine, but if they follow what they were trained to do … they have to go with what happened at the time. We don’t have the benefit of replay. Steve Alm should resign, in the best interest of the community.”

Kimo Omerod, a police officer who brought nearly 300 masks to give out to supporters, was appreciative of the support shown by citizens.

“I’m a police officer, so what we do out here is we not only support and protect our community, but when our brothers are in peril, we gotta come out and support. It’s not just about us; it’s about the community. There’s so much community members that are out here. It’s heartwarming to get that much community support,” Omerod told the Star- Advertiser. “I think Hawaii’s a little bit different. In Hawaii we have a sense of ohana, so police brutality really doesn’t thrive in our community. This was an unfortunate incident, but we’re gonna let the law take care of that.”

Alicia Rodriguez, a police psychologist, said she has a lot of respect for the men and women she works with.

“They’re good people who do what they think is right, and I trust them. Our men and women in blue work so hard to protect us, and they’re doing their job and we can’t punish them and have a double standard,” she told the Star- Advertiser. “You have to remember that officers are highly trained professionals, so they go through a lot of training to be able to make split-second decisions, and they’re coming at this to try and protect the community, so if people are going to commit crime and take violent actions, an officer’s job is to step in and do something. That doesn’t always mean that there’s not sadness at the end, but that doesn’t mean an officer didn’t do their job. They are these guys, they do their job every day to keep all of us safe.”

Michael Kitchens, founder of Stolen Stuff Hawaii, said he does not believe the officers committed murder or attempted murder, and that there is overwhelming support throughout the community for police while the opposition is a small albeit vocal minority.

“I believe that they were acting in performance of their duties to protect our community from a crime spree. Many of us are overwhelmed by the idea that they could be given charges due to carrying out the performance of their duties with their city- issued semi-automatic firearm. … It comes across as simply insulting to our law enforcement,” he told the Star-Advertiser. “I don’t believe that our community has changed their thoughts towards law enforcement. There is a narrative that is attempting to be pushed here by outside forces and those who feel that law enforcement is full of systemic racism. I don’t believe that to be the case here, nor do many in the community, as evidenced by the comments you see on articles as well as social media.”

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Star-Advertiser reporter Rosemarie Bernardo contributed to this report.