OMAO — Friends and neighbors spoke highly of both the victim and suspect involved in a shooting death early New Year’s Day.
According to neighbors there was no obvious motive for the slaying of Amby Cruz, the 88-year-old Omao man found dead Jan. 1. He was reportedly discovered by family members who came home not long after midnight that morning, said Brandon Tachibana, an employee at a nearby nursery in the Omao neighborhood where the victim lived.
“They came in around 2 a.m. and saw their dad laying there,” Tachibana said. “I don’t know what happened exactly.”
A son, Arnold Cruz, was living with Cruz at the time and is staying somewhere else for the time being, Tachibana said. No one was at the victim’s residence Monday morning, but another son, Anthony Cruz, told The Garden Island when contacted by phone the family couldn’t comment on his father’s case.
Tachibana said Cruz was a “very nice man” who was always close to all of the nursery employees.
“He was very kind hearted and loving,” Tachibana said. “He was a retired mechanic with the Lihue Plantation who raised chickens and tended a garden in his retirement.”
Tachibana did not know of any relationship between Cruz and the man arrested in his death, Giovani Corpuz, 41. He said, however, that Corpuz rented a dwelling just a block away from Cruz on Omo Road.
“I am just glad they caught the guy so that all of the neighbors can be at ease,” Tachibana said.
The Kauai Police Department said Omao died of a single gunshot wound to the head. The department’s press release on the incident was issued Friday, nine days after the alleged attack. The department said the initial call was for a medical situation and that Kauai Fire Department responders found Cruz unresponsive.
Cruz was pronounced dead at Wilcox Memorial Hospital. The following day, Jan. 2, it was determined through an autopsy that Cruz suffered a single fatal gunshot wound to the head.
Police Chief Darryl Perry declined to answer questions on the investigation after the initial press release was issued. The investigation didn’t have any leads in the case, and investigators determined that Corpuz was a suspect after interviewing friends, family and neighbors of the victim, the release said.
Corpuz was arrested Friday at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, according to a report in the Taipei Times. Acting on information from the FBI, the Taiwan Criminal Investigation Bureau stopped Corpuz after his flight from Honolulu landed, and before he could make his connection flight to Manila.
Another neighbor, Flora Serrano, said on Monday that she met Cruz through a relative around 32 years ago when she first arrived from the Philippines. She learned of the slaying the following day and like others, did not distinguish any gunshot from all the New Year’s Eve fireworks in the neighborhood.
“It was loud and smoky,” she said of the typically celebratory night.
Another neighbor, Consolacion Looc, said she worked with the suspect, Corpuz, for nearly 10 years at the Grand Hyatt where he was a laundry washer. The Hyatt is also where the victim’s son, Arnold, is a manager, she said.
“When I saw on the news I couldn’t believe it,” Looc said. “He is really a good person and I don’t know what drove him to do that if he is the one who did it. He was not the guy to provoke a fight. He was always jolly and would always make us laugh at the laundry.”
Looc said that Corpuz was let go from the laundry in 2012. A Hyatt manager said the hotel could not comment Monday.
Corpuz is from the Philippines and moved to Kauai after marrying, Looc said. The couple has two children, a son who may be an adult now, and a daughter who is in high school, she told TGI.
Looc said that Corpuz was on Kauai as late as Jan. 6. He attended a party for a couple that worked at the laundry and were going to the Philippines to get married, she said.
“I didn’t go but somebody told me that he went there that night,” Looc said.
Corpus was transferred to the United States Marshals Service, Hawaii District and is awaiting extradition back to the U.S. to face charges.
Looc said she struggles to think about why Corpuz could possibly have committed such a crime. She wanted to know what could lead to killing an older, defenseless man.
The Corpus family lived in Koloa until the laundry job ended and rented a home on Punee Road. Neighbors say Corpus was working at the nearby Hale Kupuna Heritage Home nursing facility. Management could not confirm the information, and nobody could be reached at the suspect’s home Monday.
But a neighbor of Corpuz, who did not want to be identified, said both the husband and wife were employed and that there weren’t any signs of trouble with the family.
“It makes me nervous to watch the news,” the neighbor said. “I am not sleeping well and nervous since this happened, and so is my mother.”
Anyone with information is urged to call detective Bernard Purisima at 241-1682. Anonymous tipsters can call CrimeStoppers at 241-1887.
• Tom LaVenture, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0424 or by emailing tlaventure@thegardenisland.com.
