Barricaded Suspect Pointed Gun At Police Before He Was Shot To Death, Chief Says
The man, who was fatally shot by officers early Friday, was a suspect in three bank robberies across Oahu.
Honolulu police Chief Joe Logan said a suspect who was killed following an hours-long standoff in Waikiki left the condo where he was barricaded and pointed a gun at officers before police shot him at around 4:30 a.m. on Friday.
The man, whom Logan said would be identified by the Medical Examiner’s Office, was a suspect in three bank robberies earlier this month on the Windward side of Oahu and in Pearl City, he said during a press conference at the department’s headquarters Friday.
Officers with the Honolulu Police Department’s Specialized Services Division who were investigating the robberies got information about the suspect’s location Thursday night and saw a man matching the suspect’s description entering a Waikiki condo at around 8 p.m., Logan said.
Officers evacuated nearby residents and closed the area of Liliuokalani Avenue between Cleghorn Street and Ala Wai Boulevard.
Crisis negotiators made contact with the suspect, who was inside a condo unit that did not belong to him, Logan said. No other people were inside at the time.
The suspect “refused to communicate,” he said.
Officers flew a surveillance drone up to the unit and confirmed the man was armed when he pointed a small firearm resembling a Glock 17 at the drone, Logan said.
Police later deployed chemical canisters of pepper spray and CS gas around the unit where the suspect was barricaded, Logan said. He exited and pointed his gun at four specialized officers, who fired their weapons, killing him.
The officers fired “multiple shots,” HPD spokeswoman Michelle Yu said in a statement.
A neighbor, Danielle Bidondo, who lives on Cleghorn Street, said she heard gunfire early in the morning on Friday.
“It was scary,” she said, as she tidied up her lanai later Friday morning. “First one shot, and I thought, is that a gunshot? Then another one.”
Logan said the officers involved were not wearing body cameras because they are part of a specialized division that is not required to use the devices. He said the department is analyzing other video footage from door cameras on nearby apartments.
The officers involved in the shooting will be offered administrative leave, though he said they had not yet taken it because they were sill working on writing reports.
Phil Verso, supervising investigator with the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office, said the man’s name was not yet available pending identification and family notification.
This is the third fatal officer-involved shooting on Oahu this year. Officers shot and killed Sidney Tafokitau on Jan. 1 after an island-wide manhunt. Tafokitau shot and injured two officers. On Jan. 25, officers shot Brandan Maroney in Makaha while he was walking in the middle of Farrington Highway holding a knife. Body camera or other video footage has not been released in either incident.
