Honolulu police have arrested a man for suspicion of second-degree murder as they continue investigating a case surrounding human remains found in a Pearl City apartment.
Scott Deangelo, 32, was arrested Tuesday afternoon in Laie after allegedly fleeing the Pearl City apartment that burned Monday night.
A male victim was found with suspicious injuries in a unit at the Lehua Hale apartment building, 906 Lehua Ave., after firefighters extinguished a large fire that gutted the apartment.
The victim’s name has yet to be released by the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office. At a news conference Tuesday, Lt. Deena Thoemmes of the Honolulu Police Department’s Homicide Detail declined to provide any details about the victim’s “suspicious injuries” because the investigation is ongoing.
Honolulu firefighters and police responded to the fire on the fourth floor of the four-story building at about 8:55 p.m. Upon arrival, fire crews saw heavy smoke and flames coming from the unit, the Honolulu Fire Department said.
Firefighters brought the fire under control at 9:18 p.m. and extinguished it shortly afterward. A preliminary report from HFD found that the fire was intentionally set, Thoemmes said.
Shards of glass from the charred apartment’s jalousie windows were strewn on the sidewalk and street just below the unit Tuesday morning.
A man who resides in the apartment building said he heard a commotion and thumping sounds followed by what sounded like seven to eight gunshots at the time of the fire. Another resident, who declined to give her name, said she heard what sounded like four to five gunshots.
Through an investigation, police identified Deangelo as a suspect in the second-degree murder investigation. According to police, witnesses reportedly saw a male with a firearm climb out of a window and flee the scene in a white sport utility vehicle. The firearm has not been recovered. The vehicle was found on Kamehameha Highway in front of a Hauula residence.
Court records show police issued Deangelo two criminal citations at Kailua Beach Park in January 2021 and December 2020 for allegedly violating COVID-19 emergency mandates. One of the citations show a North Carolina address for Deangelo from a driver’s license or state identification card that expired in January 2020.
Both citations were dismissed without prejudice.
Thoemmes on Tuesday said Deangelo and the victim were “acquaintances,” but she declined to further elaborate on the nature of their relationship.
———
Star-Advertiser staff writer Mark Ladao contributed to this report.
