Deadly force justified in fatal 2021 police shooting

Honolulu police tried repeatedly to dissuade and disarm a distraught 33-year-old man who barricaded himself in an apartment in August 2021 before he waved a loaded gun at officers, leaving them no choice but deadly force, Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm announced Thursday.

No charges will be filed against the 43-year-old Specialized Services Division officer who shot and killed 33-year-old Brandon Ventura with a single round from his M4 carbine on Aug. 27, according to the findings of an investigation by the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and HPD’s Professional Standards Office.

Prior to the deadly confrontation, Ventura had been “spiraling out of control and abusing alcohol, cocaine and Xanax since breaking up with his girlfriend,” his roommate told police.

Police tried for more than three hours to talk Ventura down, after Ventura called 911 at 1:40 p.m. that afternoon from a 15th-floor apartment at the Kamakee Vista on Kawaiahao Street, saying his girlfriend broke up with him and he had a gun to his head.

Officers assigned to HPD’s patrol division, Crime Reduction Unit, Specialized Services Division and a HPD crisis negotiator tried to no avail to get Ventura to give up the gun and allow police to transport him to the hospital for a mental health evaluation. When those efforts failed, officers tried stopping him with a nonlethal projectile fired from a shotgun.

“They (the officers) put themselves in danger. … HPD did everything right here,” said Alm, speaking Thursday at a news conference. “Mr. Ventura was the cause of his own death.”

Ventura had 16 prior arrests, two for felony offenses, and had been involved in a barricade situation with police in 2018. He had expressed “suicidal intentions” to police on four previous occasions, once in 2018, twice in 2019 and another time in 2020, according to police reports generated by the incidents.

When Ventura called 911 that afternoon, he gave his address, 1065 Kawaiahao St., Apartment 1503, to an Emergency Medical Serv­ices operator and said, “I have a loaded gun to my head,” according to the prosecutor’s report.

“So you feel like you just want to shoot yourself kind of thing?” asked the operator.

“Yeah, my girlfriend broke up with me,” replied Ventura.

The operator told Ventura that they were going to come help him, and Ventura asked whether he would be charged for possessing the .45-caliber handgun he had pointed at his head. The operator told him EMS didn’t know how that worked. Ventura needed help and would be taken to a hospital, the operator said, before offering to connect him to a crisis specialist while he awaited medical attention.

“I didn’t take my meds today,” Ventura told the operator.

Patrol officers arrived on-scene at about 1:51 p.m. Ventura was living with his friend and roommate, the manager of a bar Ventura frequented in May 2021. The bar manager awoke that afternoon to the sound of police sirens and walked out of his room to find Ventura kneeling on the floor by the window with a kitchen knife in his left hand. Ventura told his friend the “cops were coming for him,” according to the prosecutor’s report.

Ventura’s roommate told him to turn himself in. Ventura said no, dropped the knife and told his roommate he was getting his gun and police would have to shoot him or he was going to shoot them. If he was going to do that, the roommate asked Ventura to let him go, and he did.

Five patrol officers approached the door of the apartment and tried repeatedly to get Ventura’s attention.

A police corporal called out, “Brandon, are you in there?” but got no response. “Brandon, it’s the police. We’re just here to talk,” the corporal continued before knocking on the door and identifying himself again. After checking with police dispatch that they had the right apartment number, the corporal announced himself again and tried the door, but it was locked.

Police repeatedly offered Ventura help before he responded.

“You can help me?” Ventura said through the door.

“I’m asking how can we help you,” replied the HPD corporal.

“By shooting me,” replied Ventura. “I’m sorry?” asked the corporal, attempting to clarify Ventura’s request.

“Fire on me,” said Ventura. “No, Brandon,” said the corporal.

“Or I’ll fire on you,” said Ventura.

“Nah, Brandon, let’s not take that route today,” the corporal responded before asking another officer to immediately request a crisis negotiator and notify their sergeant that SSD may have to be activated. At 1:56 p.m. patrol officers evacuated all other residents from the 15th floor.

At 1:57 p.m. Crime Reduction Unit officers armed with AR-15 rifles and a ballistic shield took up a position closest to Ventura’s door. CRU officers reported that Ventura opened, then closed the door to the apartment before dead-bolting it shut. A CRU officer who caught a glimpse of his face said he appeared to be “distraught, intoxicated, and angry towards the police,” according to the report.

Another friend of Ventura’s met with police and said Ventura called from the apartment. The friend, identified in the report as “witness 2,” relayed a message to Ventura that police wanted to make sure he was OK and that he would be taken for a mental health evaluation. Attempts to reach Ventura’s girlfriend failed because her phone was off, the friend said. Ventura requested a Honolulu police sergeant be called to the scene and that he would surrender, according to the report.

At 3:30 p.m. SSD officers relieved CRU and tried to talk Ventura out of his chosen path. Ventura replied occasionally, and agreed to slide the knife under the door and out of the apartment before he threw a gun magazine into the hallway, telling police he really didn’t know how to use the firearm.

One SSD officer “pleaded with Ventura to put the gun down and told him that he needed to live for his family and son.” Ventura replied that he “wanted to say goodbye to family and that he wanted to kill himself,” according to the report.

From 4:21 to about 4:34 p.m., the HPD sergeant Ventura requested spoke with him by phone. At 4:34 p.m. Ventura told the sergeant to tell his son that he loved him.

During an exchange with an SSD corporal, Ventura and the corporal made eye contact, and the corporal asked Ventura to remove his finger from the trigger of his gun and lower the pistol away from his head, according to the report. Ventura complied, and the corporal immediately fired a nonlethal, 40-mm foam-tipped munition at Ventura, hitting him in the leg, stunning him.

The corporal advanced on Ventura while yelling at him to drop the gun. The corporal grabbed Ventura’s left hand and put his right hand on the slide of Ventura’s pistol. The 43-year-old SSD officer with an M4 carbine entered the apartment and saw the corporal struggling with Ventura and the gun in the kitchen area of the apartment. Ventura was “bending his elbow down into the sink and turning his left wrist” so the muzzle of the gun was aimed at the corporal’s head and face.

The SSD officer with the M4 pointed it at Ventura’s head and fired one round at 4:37 p.m. The corporal felt Ventura’s arm “go limp,” and officers grabbed Ventura’s gun, discharged the round and placed the weapon on the counter.

An autopsy revealed Ventura had cocaine, methamphetamine and alcohol in his system and died of a gunshot wound to the head.