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A bystander who says he was hit by a police SUV and “bludgeoned” by multiple officers during a police pursuit of a suspect on New Year’s Day filed a lawsuit against the Honolulu Police Department on Tuesday.

Tevitatonga Sinamoni Vaokehekehe Cadiente, 25, suffered a facial fracture, a subconjunctival hemorrhage, a concussion and other injuries after he was struck by a police vehicle and beaten while walking north on University Avenue in Manoa just after 4 p.m. on Jan. 1, the lawsuit says.

That day, Honolulu police were pursuing Sidney Tafokitau, 44, who was a suspect in an attempted murder and carjacking earlier on Jan. 1. The pursuit ended with Tafokitau shooting and injuring two officers, and officers fatally shooting Tafokitau on University Avenue.

Cadiente, who knew Tafokitau through his church and the Tongan community, had been following news throughout the day about an island-wide manhunt for Tafokitau. When he saw police vehicles passing his house on University Avenue, he believed they were chasing Tafokitau and he felt he could help convince Tafokitau to surrender peacefully, the lawsuit says.

Cadiente and his father went outside at around 4:15 p.m. and heard gunshots further up the road. Cadiente began jogging toward the sound when two plainclothes officers jumped out of an unmarked car and pointed guns at him, the lawsuit says.

Cadiente started walking back towards his father with his arms raised when a police SUV drove over a curb and “smashed” him into a chain link fence, causing him to slide under the vehicle, according to the lawsuit.

Officers then pulled Cadiente, who was “semi-concious and stunned” out from under the vehicle and “continuously bludgeoned” him with their hands and the blunt ends of their weapons, the lawsuit says. A witness said that 10 to 12 officers participated in the bludgeoning while Cadiente was “crying, helpless and non resistant.”

When asked about the lawsuit during a Honolulu Police Commission meeting on Wednesday, Logan said he still needed to review it.

Police spokeswoman Michelle Yu said that the chief had not received a copy of the lawsuit at the time of the meeting. She said a criminal investigation involving Tafokitau and an administrative review of the Jan. 1 pursuit are ongoing.

On Jan. 2, Yu released a statement saying a man had been struck by a police vehicle during the pursuit and that his “possible connection to the case was still being determined.” 

Yu declined to comment further on Wednesday, citing the pending litigation.

Details Of Daylong Manhunt Wanting

Cadiente was never charged with any counts in connection with the Jan. 1 incidents, court records show.

Civil Beat requested body camera footage of the incident, but Yu declined to release it, citing the ongoing investigation.

Michael Rudy, one of the attorneys representing Cadiente and his father, said officers initially mistook Cadiente as the suspect they were looking for, despite the fact that Tafokitau had been shot about 300 yards away.

One officer shouted “Oh, you like to shoot cops, huh?” as he hit Cadiente in the head, the lawsuit says. His father told attorneys that he later overheard an officer say police had “gotten the wrong guy” because Cadiente matched the description of the suspect.

“The only thing they were guilty of was being Polynesian or Tongan,” Rudy said of his clients.

Logan said during the commission meeting that the department’s Pursuit Review Board would evaluate the Jan. 1 pursuit and present its findings “at a later date.”

Police faced criticism in the days following Jan. 1 for not releasing more information about the pursuit and daylong manhunt.

Officers began looking for Tafokitau after he was accused of shooting a 39-year-old woman in Halawa at around 7:15 a.m. on Jan. 1. Plainclothes officers tried to apprehend Tafokitau in a stolen vehicle in Kalihi later that morning, but he fired multiple times at their . He later stole another vehicle from a driver at gunpoint.

Police posted the update from Crimestoppers on X on Jan. 1, but Logan said Wednesday that, in retrospect, they could have shared more information throughout the day. But he also said the situation was developing rapidly and it took officers time to piece together where Tafokitau was and what vehicle he was driving.

“I think what’s difficult is, we all think it happened rather quickly, all at the same time, even though it started from early morning, around 7 until 4 o’clock in the afternoon,” he said. “But it wasn’t continuous. There were breaks where HPD was not involved. We were actively looking but not engaged in any way with the individual. Because of those separations, we don’t know what’s going on with the individual, we just know that we’re looking.”

Logan said that the department would work on ways to push out more information to the public including through “after-hours notification and increased use of social media plans.”