Mahalo for supporting Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Enjoy this free story!
Two years after two Honolulu police officers responding to a 911 call of suspicious behavior were ambushed and killed by a sniper, the department released the official account of what happened that morning on Hibiscus Drive.
On Jan. 19, 2020, a renter at 3015 Hibiscus Drive, Jaroslav “Jerry” Hanel, aka “Yarda,” who had a history of complaints of menacing behavior, allegedly assaulted his landlady, Lois Cain, stabbed another tenant who tried to save her, and shot and killed Honolulu police Officers Tiffany-Victoria Enriquez and Kaulike Kalama before setting the house ablaze.
At least five or six officers reported injuries including bruising, abrasions and minor scrapes as a result of the incident, according to the summary. Other officers reported exposure to thick black smoke and fumes from the fire. They also complained of shortness of breath, coughing and burning to the nose, eyes and throat.
Responding officers will be surveyed about the incident and a training course based on the tragedy will be developed.
An Administrative Review Board identified 10 HPD policies that applied to the incident and determined that officers complied with all of them, according to the 17-page “Summary Report of the Hibiscus Drive Critical Incident January 19, 2020.”
The review board determines whether all applicable department policies were followed during the critical incident and whether any changes are needed to training, policies or both.
“This incident is a tragic reminder of the incredible risks police officers take every day to keep our community safe. It should also serve as a warning to policymakers that when it comes to police work, there’s no such thing as a ‘routine call,’ and even if officers follow their training and adhere to every policy, as our officers did here, they still may end up losing their lives because of the evil actions of a criminal,” said Robert Cavaco, president of the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers. “We’re proud of all of our brave officers that were involved with this horrific tragedy, especially Officer Enriquez and Kalama for their professionalism, heroism and sacrifice. They represent the best of what police officers aspire to be.”
Enriquez and Kalama were among the officers dispatched to the Hibiscus Drive home where a 911 caller reported suspicious circumstances.
Cain had taken steps to evict Hanel the week before she was killed, and had been trying to get him to seek mental health treatment, which he refused.
At about 8:55 that morning, Gisela Ricardi King, who lives at 3015 Hibiscus Drive, heard screaming within the house and went to check on her friend, Cain, the owner of the property, according to the report.
King couldn’t find Cain and noticed the key to the laundry room downstairs was missing. She walked downstairs to the laundry room where Hanel closed the laundry room door and said that he was “washing clothes,” according to the report. King asked Hanel if Cain was in the laundry room. Hanel told her Cain had just left.
King heard heavy breathing coming from inside of the laundry room and called 911. Hanel left the laundry room and stabbed King several times with a small metal garden tool, described by a bystander as a “rusty pitchfork thing.” Three people heard King screaming and went to the Cain residence, according to the incident summary.
A witness saw Hanel hitting King with his hands. Hanel went back into the home when he saw the witness.
Three witnesses saw that King was bleeding from her right thigh and helped get her onto the street where King told them she believed Hanel was killing Cain.
A second witness went down the driveway to check on Cain and reported hearing what sounded like someone being beaten inside the bottom unit, according to the summary. The second witness called out and asked Hanel if Cain was inside, but got no answer.
At 9:02 a.m. Officers Yongming Huang, Cody Peer and Enriquez arrived and found King, who had been stabbed in the leg.
King told officers that Hanel was the man who attacked her and that Cain could be trapped. The officers approached Hanel’s downstairs unit and called for him to come out.
Huang knew Hanel from prior 911 calls and remembered he lived in the studio in the back of Cain’s house. Huang saw blood on the ground by the laundry area, but could not see anyone inside of the house because of darkness and obstructed windows, according to the summary.
Huang asked for an ambulance and told dispatchers he had an assault case with a woman bleeding from her leg. He then tied a tourniquet on King’s leg.
At 9:08 a.m. Huang and Peer made their way down the driveway with Enriquez right behind them, according to the summary. The officers stood in the open driveway area facing the closed downstairs door.
Peer called out, “Yarda, come out with your hands up!” according to the summary. “One loud gunshot was heard, and Officer Enriquez fell backward to the ground and became unresponsive. Huang and Officer Peer ran into the carport area at the bottom of the driveway as Peer yelled, “Shots fired, shots fired.” Peer told police dispatch that an officer was down and requested an ambulance immediately.
Between 9:10 and 9:12 a.m. officers identified in the report as Pagarigan, Pickard and Alcover arrived on scene. Pagarigan began heading down the driveway and saw Enriquez was on the ground, according to the summary. He told everyone to pull back and that Enriquez was down from an apparent gunshot wound. The officers then cleared out bystanders.
Officers identified as Cheng, Kodama, Youth and Sgt. Perry arrived at the home and began to check the area. Kodama asked where the officers were and Huang relayed that Hanel was in the house, but they did not know where, that one shot was fired, and that Enriquez was down.
At 9:17 a.m, an Officer Thorpe arrived and posted up with a Sgt. Vargas and a Cpl. Manzano near Hanel’s studio. Manzano told Thorpe to hold that position while Vargas instructed Kalama to go with him and Manzano since Kalama had an AR-15 rifle.
Kodama ran from the middle of the carport area to Enriquez’s location, dragged her into the carport area, and began CPR. Peer took over, checked for a pulse and said that Enriquez was not breathing.
At about 9:21 from the adjacent home’s balcony, Pagarigan yelled for Hanel to come out with his hands up. After Vargas and Manzano moved into the carport, Pagarigan repeated, “Jerry, this is HPD,” according to the report.
A “deep sounding gunshot” was heard and Kalama fell to the ground among shrubbery in the driveway. Spencer and Alcover started running up the driveway as Kalama fired about eight rounds from his rifle before losing consciousness.
Spencer ran to Kalama and yelled for help as he pointed his pistol toward Hanel’s house and fired one round after hearing a loud sound coming from the home, according to the summary. Spencer tried to drag Kalama and yelled to the officers in the carport for assistance. Officers thought Hanel was firing from a downstairs window.
Spencer asked for cover at about 9:24 a.m. while he again tried to pull Kalama to safety. He asked for help and officers identified as Thorpe, Davis and Asing helped carry Kalama across the street where Davis performed CPR.
At 9:42 a.m. smoke and flames started coming from Hanel’s studio. Two minutes later a single gunshot was heard and officers were ordered to fall back. Ammunition from Cain’s late husband’s armory began going off. The fire spread to three neighboring homes before Honolulu firefighters were able to put it out.
On Jan. 21, 2020, Cain and Hanel’s bodies was found amid the charred debris of the home. A rifle and ammunition casings were discovered near Hanel’s body, according to the report.
“The rifle was identified as a Weatherby .460-caliber rifle not registered to the suspect. Bullet fragments from both Officer Kalama and Officer Enriquez could neither be eliminated nor identified as having been fired from the Weatherby rifle due to the condition of the fragments,” read the incident summary.
Kalama and Enriquez were pronounced dead at the hospital.
Summary Report of the Hibis… by Honolulu Star-Advertiser
78
