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Police fatally shoot theft suspect in Mililani; 2 others injured as fleeing pickup crashes

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(Video by Cindy Ellen Russell / crussell@staradvertiser.com)
Mililani resident Orville Smith shared what he saw at the scene of a fatal shooting involving a Honolulu police officer Wednesday night.
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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM

Honolulu police officers investigate the fatal shooting of a suspect by police in Mililani tonight.

Police fatally shot the driver of a pickup truck near the Mililani Walmart Wednesday evening and his two passengers were injured when the truck crashed, a Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman said.

Officers stopped the driver, who was a theft suspect, at the intersection of Anania Drive and Lanikuhana Avenue about 5:50 p.m., HPD spokeswoman Michelle Yu said.

The suspect rammed a police vehicle while attempting to flee. He was fatally shot an the truck hit a tree, she said.

The two passengers were transported to a hospital with crash-related injuries. One person was critically injured, said an official source, who asked not to be named.

HPD officials plan to hold a news conference Thursday on the shooting, Yu said.

Witnesses said undercover officers attempted to intercept a stolen Toyota pickup at the intersection.

A witness told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that an officer said the truck driver almost struck one of his partners. The officer then opened fire and hit the driver, according to the witness.

Orville Smith, 11, witnessed the aftermath.

“There’s like cop cars coming down and we saw like — we came here like two to three minutes after and they started pulling the body out of the car and they put the white sheet over it and all the cop cars started coming and there’s more cop cars.

“More and more keep on coming and they like stopped and they started putting all the flares and the caution tape up and then, yeah, and then we came back out and then we saw more of them and yeah.”

Lanikuhana Avenue was closed between Anania Drive and Kamehameha Highway until about 11 p.m. as police investigated.