HONOLULU — Four people were fatally shot and two were injured after a “neighbor-on-neighbor dispute” between two longtime kamaaina families led to violence with a front loader and gunfire at a gathering late Saturday night in Waianae Valley.
According to the Honolulu Police Department, at about 11:15 p.m. Saturday, 911 callers reported to police that a neighbor was using a front loader to ram multiple cars into a home on a dead-end street in the area of 85-1300 Waianae Valley Road.
“Multiple individuals were in the carport and fled or tried to flee when the suspect opened fire, striking the victims,” HPD homicide Lt. Deena Thoemmes said at a midday news conference Sunday at HPD headquarters.
Three women, ages 36, 34 and 29, were fatally shot, and a 31-year-old man and 52-year-old woman were critically injured and hospitalized, Thoemmes said.
A 42-year-old man who lived at the home then shot and killed the 58-year-old male suspect operating the front loader, she said. Thoemmes said officers arrested the 42-year-old on suspicion of second-degree murder. He had not been charged as of Sunday night.
Thoemmes said the investigation revealed that the front loader was also carrying four 55-gallon drums filled with an “unknown fuel” and that some witnesses had said that the driver had fired several rounds into the drums. She said the Honolulu Fire Department’s HazMat crew helped to remove the drums from the location.
Honolulu Police Chief Arthur “Joe” Logan called the latest incident a “neighbor-on-neighbor dispute” that was unrelated to any of the other recent shootings on Oahu’s West side that have led to an increased law enforcement presence in the area and community outreach to combat gun violence.
“Unfortunately, criminals are criminals, and from time to time they choose to commit a violent act. And sometimes they may wait for police to pass by and then commit an act,” Logan said.
Thoemmes said the investigation is preliminary and ongoing but that records show that officers were called to the area in 2023 for a dispute between the same neighbors. Logan said there were no 911 calls from that area earlier Saturday.
He also said, “I don’t think all the guns involved were registered.”
Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said in a statement that Saturday’s shooting marks the fourth high-profile shooting in the area in the past month. Blangiardi said the frequency and severity of the violent incidents occurring in Waianae demand urgent attention and action.
“This incident, involving neighbors, has shaken our community to its core and is a painful reminder of the violence that has impacted Waianae too often in recent weeks,” he said.
Blangiardi added that the City and County of Honolulu stands ready to support the Honolulu Police Department, community leaders and social service organizations as all work together to understand the cause of the violence and to take steps to prevent it.
“This violence must stop. I call on our entire community to come together, to look out for one another, and to speak up if they see or hear something that could help prevent another tragedy,” he said. “Now more than ever, it is crucial that we come together as a community to support one another and take meaningful steps to prevent these tragedies from happening again.”
Family dispute
The shooting occurred during a dispute between two longtime kamaaina families who live in Waianae Valley, according to Honolulu City Council member Andria Tupola and Waianae Neighborhood Board member Richard Landford Jr., who lives on the makai end of Waianae Valley Road.
Tupola said the shooting occurred “between two families that I know well and many people know well” that have extended families throughout the Leeward side.
During her time in the state House and City Council, Tupola has been to events hosted by both families, such as graduations during COVID-19 and meetings to organize homeless outreach along the Leeward Coast.
“Lots of members of both families have done a lot for our community,” she said. “It’s so tragic.”
Tupola’s Council district encompasses police Patrol District 8, which covers Ewa, Ewa Beach, West Loch, Barbers Point, Kapolei, Makakilo, Campbell Industrial Park, Honokai Hale, Ko Olina, Nanakuli, Maili, Waianae, Makaha, Makua and Kaena.
She has led the push for the completion of HPD’s Waianae Substation — a 25,172-square-foot, two-story structure dedicated on May 20, 2016, at a cost of $16 million — which still needs millions to realize its potential as a state-of-the-art facility.
Tupola and the community she represents are concerned that every time officers are called to multiple events in Waianae at one time that result in arrest, it pulls them off their beats and takes them back to the main Kapolei police station to process adult offenders and write up reports.
In the spring the Honolulu City Council unanimously approved a resolution introduced by Tupula that asked HPD leadership to provide a plan by 2024 for the new Waianae patrol district, District 9, including the installation of a live-scan fingerprint process machine to process arrestees in Waianae.
It was just Aug. 16 when Gov. Josh Green and U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda joined Blangiardi, Logan, state Law Enforcement Director Jordan Lowe, state legislators and Tupola at a news conference to address the spike in gun violence following three separate shootings over nine days, which left two men dead and at least five people injured. They vowed to “flood” the Waianae community with significant additional law enforcement presence and to develop legislation and other strategies to quell the violence, which has been addressed in numerous community actions and town hall meetings.
Logan has said adding a police District 9, centered in Waianae, should be fast-tracked, but it is dependent on data collection and completion of the substation — as well as adding additional police to stand up a new district.
Staffing at 100%
During the Sunday news conference, Logan said staffing in the district was at 100% the week before but not over the weekend or Saturday night. Logan declined to provide the exact number of officers who were assigned, but said, “The commander has resources adequate enough for her to do her job and what she wants to do for the district.”
Logan said every commander wants more resources, but every day HPD has over 1,700 officers and 400 civilians working.
“Staffing shortages don’t cause crime. Crime happens because individuals make a choice amongst themselves to do something,” he said. “Now, we can deter crime from time to time when we are patrolling in the areas as we are, but unfortunately, like this incident, which happened in a neighborhood tucked away in the Waianae area, it’s very difficult for us to be able to stop a ‘neighbor-on-neighbor dispute.’”
But Logan added, “If they had called us in advance earlier, we could have got there to talk through the issues and concerns to help them with their situation.”
Last week, Tupola said she handed out flyers with her phone number, along with information for HPD’s CrimeStoppers program, so people in the community can reach out both before and after disputes end up in violence and to help victims.
“We need to make sure every possible resource is expended,” she said.
Landford, 77, said his family goes back generations in Waianae Valley and that the two families involved in Saturday night’s shootings trace their family lineages even further.
He said that he knew something especially bad had happened when he heard police and ambulance sirens heading up and down Waianae Valley Road for hours Saturday night.
“A lot of things have changed in the community,” Landford said. “Everybody’s concerned. It’s never been like this.”
The shootings were particularly tragic, Landford said, because an uncle in one of the families had been talking to Landford and other members of the neighborhood board about settling disputes between younger Waianae residents the “old-school way.”
“Growing up in the old days, you fist it out, shook hands and it’s over,” Landford said. “An uncle would tell the kids, ‘Once you leave the yard it’s over. You cannot call your cousin or brother or father. It’s over. The thing is done and everybody goes home.’ We cannot do that anymore. Now with social media, kids think they’re all Al Capone. It’s tough.”
WILD WEST
Recent fatal/multiple shootings in Leeward Oahu, including six killed in August:
>> Aug. 31: A shooting in Waianae kills four people, including the suspect, and wounds two others in the area of 85-1300 Waianae Valley Road. Two people are critically injured and hospitalized.
>> Aug. 15: A suspect or suspects opens fire at a group of people, wounding two teenagers. Paramedics respond to a 15-year-old boy on Ala Akau Street in Waianae who has gunshot wounds to his upper and lower body. They provide advanced life support and take the boy in serious condition to an emergency room. About five minutes later a 19-year-old man with multiple gunshot wounds walks up to an Emergency Medical Services unit at 85-645 Farrington Highway, which is near the Waianae Small Boat Harbor and Ala Akau Street. Paramedics treat the patient and take him in serious condition to an emergency room.
>> Aug. 14: Alston “Kaipo” Awong, 60, is fatally shot by a Honolulu police officer in Waianae after Awong refuses repeated orders to drop a stolen handgun he used to fire into his neighbor’s house, where his girlfriend ran after he assaulted her in the street. Three other people are shot and seriously injured.
>> Aug. 6: Cheylo Perkins-Chongtim, 31, is fatally shot allegedly by Rastan Jaitano Hekah Brown-Castro, 25, at the Waianae Small Boat Harbor following a long-running dispute.
>> July 28: A man, 22, fires at a group in Waipahu and strikes a 17-year-old boy, a 23-year-old woman and a 24-year old man.
>> May 16: Three men enter an illegal game room at a Wahiawa residence and are shot by another male, Alize Ou, 20. One of the men shot dies, and the other two are taken in serious condition to a hospital.
>> Jan. 20: Bystander Andrew Quisquirin is fatally struck by a stray bullet at his home in Waianae by the alleged shooter, Korey Farinas, following a confrontation between Farinas’ female friend and a Longs Drugs store manager over stolen beer.
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Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporters Dan Nakaso and Peter Boylan contributed to this story.
