Year in review: 2024 was a tumultuous one for Hawaii

The headlines from New Year’s Day 2024 brought news of a violent shootout on Oahu after an islandwide car chase, kicking off what seemed to be a particularly tumultuous year in Hawaii marred by tragic incidences of gun violence, including the shooting deaths of four feuding neighbors in Waianae.

But 2024 also will be remembered for the $1.9 billion merger of Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines, announcement of a $4 billion settlement for victims of the Maui wildfires, the selection of Wendy Hensel to replace retiring University of Hawaii President David Lassner, and labor unrest that led to hospital nurses and hotel workers walking picket lines.

New Year’s Day police shooting

Two Honolulu Police Department officers were wounded in an exchange of gunfire on New Year’s Day with 44-year-old Sydney Tafokitau, who while free on bail was wanted for three separate shootings over a period of about two weeks leading up to the shootout.

Tafokitau, who had told a relative he would never go back to prison, led more than 20 HPD officers on a daylong chase across Oahu that ended on University Avenue near UH-Manoa. Tafokitau was under the influence of alcohol and cocaine when he opened fire and wounded the two officers and was shot 23 times by police in return.

Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm announced Dec. 4 that HPD officers were justified in killing Tafokitau and that no police personnel would be charged.

Dana Ireland murder suspect revealed

Using DNA evidence, Hawaii County police in July identified a previously unknown suspect in the notorious 1991 Christmas holiday rape and murder of 23-year-old Dana Ireland as Albert Lauro Jr., 57, who lived in the Kapoho area where the attack occurred.

Lauro had never been a prior suspect over the three decades since Ireland, a visitor from Virginia, was run over while riding a bicycle on Christmas Eve, sexually assaulted and left for dead. She died at Hilo Medical Center on Christmas Day.

In July, Hawaii County police called Lauro in for questioning and asked him to take a court-ordered, second DNA swab. He was then released and four days later, on July 23, killed himself at home.

Attorneys for brothers Albert Ian Schweitzer and Shawn Schweitzer, who years earlier were convicted and sentenced to prison in connection with Ireland’s slaying, last year filed a declaration of innocence after being exonerated in 2023 with the help of the Hawaii Innocence Project.

One year after the Maui wildfires

Commemorations were held Aug. 8 to mark one year since the deadly and devastating 2023 Maui wildfires.

The solemn day began in Lahaina — where 3,900 structures were destroyed or left uninhabitable — with state, county and federal officials joining the public in remembering the 102 people who died, while recalling the harrowing stories of survivors and vowing to rebuild in the days ahead.

Just days earlier, the state announced that a $4 billion global settlement had been reached over liability for the wildfires in hundreds of lawsuits filed against Hawaiian Electric, Maui County, the state, large landowners and other defendants. Gov. Josh Green called it an “historic settlement to resolve all tort claims arising from the Maui wildfires.”

Under the proposed settlement, which remains subject to court approval, the defendants will pay $4.04 billion for all claims, which included approximately 2,200 parties. The governor said the state would contribute to the settlement in addition to its $65 million contribution to the One Ohana Fund. The state’s contribution to the settlement must be approved by the Legislature.

The settlement would resolve the approximately 450 lawsuits filed by individuals, businesses and insurance companies in state and federal courts for fires in Lahaina and Upcountry Maui, but almost immediately attorneys for more than 160 insurance companies objected, claiming that a Maui judge’s decision barring them from suing any party thought to be responsible had no precedent around the country.

Miske trial and prison death

A federal jury in July convicted Honolulu businessman Michael J. Miske Jr. of a slew of charges alleging he was the leader of a major organized crime ring engaged in murder and racketeering. The trial spanned 98 days of testimony and evidence, and deliberations that lasted four days.

Federal prosecutors maintained that he orchestrated the 2016 killing of Johnathan Fraser, best friend to Miske’s only son, Caleb. Miske blamed Fraser for the traffic accident that killed his son, prosecutors said.

Miske, 50, was scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 30 and faced mandatory life sentences on two charges, but he was found dead Dec. 1 while being held at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center. The Honolulu Medical Examiner announced on Christmas Eve that Miske died of a fentanyl overdose, but the circumstances of his death remain under investigation.

Air crashes on two islands kill five

A Robinson R44 Raven II helicopter operated by Ali‘i Kauai Air Tours crashed off Kauai’s Na Pali coast July 11, killing all three aboard. The helicopter went down in waters about a quarter-mile offshore from Hanakoa Valley.

The victims were pilot Guy Croyden, 69, and Kentucky couple James “Jimmy” Quintua, 60, who was born and raised in Kaunakakai, Molokai, and Amy “Nichole” Ruark Quintua, 53.

A Dec. 17 air crash near Daniel K. Inouye International Airport claimed the lives of the two Kamaka Air pilots. Hiram deFries, 22, of Papakolea, and Preston Kaluhiwa, 26, of Kaneohe, died when a single-engine Cessna 208 slammed into a vacant building just after taking off. DeFries was a 2020 Punahou School graduate. Kaluhiwa graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 2016 and was certified as a flight instructor.

Waianae feud turns deadly

The night of Aug. 31, Hiram James Silva Sr. shot five of his Waianae Valley Road neighbors, killing three women at a family gathering.

In a violent rampage, Silva, armed with an unregistered and unlicensed AK-47 assault rifle and a handgun, also rammed cars into his neighbor’s home with a front-end loader packed with barrels of fuel. He was shot and killed by Rishard Kanaka Keamo-Carnate, who lived at the home with relatives who were hosting an annual family mahjong tournament.

The families of Keamo-­Carnate, 42, and Silva, 59, had been next-door neighbors for more than 20 years but were locked in a simmering dispute over Silva allowing large, unpermitted events that included noisy concerts in a Quonset hut on his property. The events had drawn crowds and complaints over noise, parking, vehicles speeding along Waianae Valley Road and alleged violations of COVID-era restrictions that were in place in 2021.

On Aug. 31, another event was underway, and the Keamo-Carnate family had finished dinner and an awards ceremony when Silva went on his rampage. Investigators found 20 bullet casings from his weapons.

Keamo-Carnate was initially arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder, but prosecutors declined to file charges against him “due to issues related to self-defense and defense of others.”

Murder-suicide in Manoa

Paris Oda, 46, originally from Kauai, fatally stabbed his wife and three children March 10 at their Waaloa Place home before killing himself. Oda was reportedly laden with debt.

Murdered were his wife, Naoko, who was originally from Japan; Sakurako “Sakura” Oda, a 17-year-old senior at ‘Iolani School; Orion, a 12-year-old sixth-grader at the School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability public charter school in Nuuanu; and 10-year-old Nana, who attended Manoa Elementary School.

Red Hill cleanup completed

Two years after the Pentagon agreed it would remove fuel from its underground Red Hill fuel storage facility and shut it down, the military task force charged with removing the stored fuel officially concluded its mission in March. In a ceremony aboard the USS Missouri, Joint Task Force Red Hill handed over authority to the newly formed Navy task force that will ultimately close the facility.

The removal of fuel from the military’s bulk storage facility was prompted after 19,000 gallons of jet fuel leaked in November 2021, contaminating the Navy’s Oahu water system, which serves 93,000 people, including military families, many of whom complained of health problems including rashes, headaches, diarrhea and vomiting.

Even as the tanks were defueled, tensions erupted last year between the military and the Red Hill Community Representation Initiative, the community board made up of a mixture of local residents, activists and people directly affected by the Red Hill water crisis. Meetings were often deeply contentious with CRI members frequently accusing military leaders of dodging questions, while federal officials complained of CRI members being disrespectful and going off-topic during meetings.

In November, a mediator appointed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was put in charge of setting meeting agendas, but the relationship between military officials and the community board remains testy. Earlier this month, the EPA said military officials violated a federal consent decree when they chose not to attend a Dec. 12 public meeting with the CRI. The agency said it was “disappointed” by their decision and assessed a $5,000 fine.

Long lines at election polls

The biggest news to come out of the Nov. 5 general election in Hawaii were the long lines of voters — many waiting as long as three hours — who turned out to cast their ballots in person instead of taking advantage of the state’s mail-in voting system.

With many voters still in line at city halls in Honolulu and Kapolei after the scheduled 7 p.m. closing of polls, the official release of election results was delayed past midnight, the longest delay in Hawaii voting history,

Turnout of 522,236 voters — whether by mail or in person — accounted for roughly 61% of Hawaii’s 860,868 registered voters. Mail-in turnout was 483,078, with only 39,158 ballots cast in person, according to the state elections office.

Much of the results were determined three months earlier, when all of the contested Honolulu races — namely, elections for mayor and City Council — were decided during the Aug. 10 primary election.

In the primary’s largest upset, state House Speaker Scott Saiki was unseated by former state Board of Education member Kim Coco Iwamoto in her third attempt to represent parts of downtown, Ala Moana and Kakaako. She faced no general election opponent, clearing the way for her to take office in January.

Saiki had been House speaker since 2018 and a member of the House for 30 years. Kauai Rep. Nadine Nakamura was subsequently picked by her peers to lead the 51-member House and is the first woman to hold the speaker position.

While Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi cruised to a landslide victory in the primary, Hawaii County voters elected a new mayor when Kimo Alameda, former CEO of Bay Clinic, was victorious over incumbent Mitch Roth in the general election.

Merger brings c hanges for airlines

Alaska Airlines completed its $1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines in September, the first major airline deal since 2016, when Alaska bought Virgin America.

Hawaiian Airlines President and CEO Peter Ingram immediately stepped down from his post, and Joe Sprague, who served as Alaska Airlines’ regional president of Hawaii/Pacific, was named the new CEO of Hawaiian.

Sprague is leading the team overseeing Hawaiian’s operations while Alaska pursues a single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration, which if granted will allow the airlines to function as a single operation with two public-facing brands, Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines.

The deal came after a protracted period of losses for Hawaiian, whose history dates back to 1929.