Honolulu police ‘justified’ in Jan. 1 fatal shooting, prosecutor says

An attempted murder suspect shot and killed by Honolulu police officers following a New Year’s Day-long pursuit and shootouts was under the influence of alcohol and cocaine and officers were justified to use deadly force, Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm announced Wednesday.

Sidney Tafokitau, 44, told a relative he would never go back to prison and was shot 23 times by police after he opened fire and wounded two officers on University Avenue.

The two injured officers are working in a light-duty capacity as they work to recover from the shooting. More than 20 officers participated in the pursuit and helped end Tafokitau’s rampage.

The shooting “was justified” and “no police personnel will be charged,” Alm said.

“My kuleana is looking at what happened on University Avenue past Dole Street when he was shooting at them and that’s when the officers shot and killed him. Was that justifiable? … I found that it was … What they did was justified,” Alm said. “Any police officer will tell you, they hope to go their career without shooting anybody. And nobody thought that day when they woke up that something like this would happen. It’s a terrible shame when people commit crimes like this and then end up trying to get themselves killed … Even if they (police officers) are totally justified, they have to live with the fact that they killed somebody and…that’s got to be a burden to carry. They know that’s part of the job and they did it, and I applaud them for being professional and doing the right thing.”

Alm said police have concluded a criminal investigation into the beating of a father and son by police officers that day that left the 25-year-old son with a facial fracture, a traumatic subconjunctival hemorrhage, a concussion, orthopedic knee injuries, cognitive impairment including memory loss and confusion, and vision loss.

“The administrative investigation into the Cadiente case is ongoing. The criminal investigation has been sent to prosecutors,” read a statement from HPD.

Tevita Cadiente, and his father, Vaokehekehe Mata­ele, 49, sued the city over the incident.

Alm declined to say when HPD concluded its investigation of the officers involved and forwarded the findings to prosecutors. Alm said no determination has been made on whether to charge the officers with crimes in connection with the injuries to Cadiente and Mataele.

Cadiente, who knew Tafokitau from the same church, attempted twice to call Tafokitau, within the same minute, to encourage him to safely surrender, according to the civil complaint.

The lawsuit describes how, as the father and son stood unarmed with their hands up, shocked and confused, a large black police van climbed the curb and ran Cadiente into a chain-link fence.

The lawsuit alleges that officers pulled Cadiente out from under the van, “then began viciously beating him in the head, approximately 10-12 officers in turn using both their hands and the blunt ends of their weapons.”

There is little body-worn camera footage from officers’ interactions with Tafokitau, including the fatal shots, because Crime Reduction Unit officers and other plain clothes police personnel are not required to wear them.

“Prosecuting Attorney Alm conducted an independent and thorough investigation, and we agree with his finding that our officers’ actions (involving Tafokitau) were both legal and justified,” said Stephen Keogh, vice president of the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers. “Our officers risked their lives to apprehend a suspect who shot two of our officers, shot at a police helicopter, shot his ex-girlfriend three times, carjacked an innocent person at knifepoint, and was wanted for a stabbing just a few weeks prior. They acted to protect the public and themselves from a dangerous criminal who showed zero regard for anyone’s life but his own.”

Speaking at the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney’s Richards Street headquarters Wednesday, Alm walked reporters through a timeline of events Jan. 1.

At 7:15 that morning, following an argument with his ex-girlfriend, Tafokitau rammed the back of her car three times on Moanalua Freeway near Aloha Stadium before shooting her three times.

The woman was taken to The Queen’s Medical Center and treated for gunshot wounds to her right hand, left arm, and right leg, Alm said.

At 11:25 a.m. on North School Street in Kalihi, Tafo­kitau engaged HPD Crime Reduction Unit officers from Patrol District 3 while they pursued him in a van.

Tafokitau fired 15-30 rounds at the police van but no one was injured.

Twenty minutes later, at 11:45 a.m. in Kaneohe, Tafo­kitau was driving the wrong way on Kahekili Highway when he ran a red light and was T-boned by another vehicle.

Tafokitau “crawled out” of his SUV’s window, reached back inside for his AR-15, “walked over to a white Scion, pointed the rifle at the driver and told her to get out,” according to the prosecuting attorney.

The driver took a picture of Tafokitau as he left his vehicle.

At 2 p.m., Tafokitau was driving westbound on Aloha Avenue in Kapahulu when he fired “one shot with the AR-15 at officers in the D8 Crime Reduction Unit SUV. No injuries were reported.”

Officers continued to pursue Tafokitau at 2:50 p.m. as he drove to the North Shore. As he was driving northbound on Kamehameha Highway toward Sunset Beach, Kahuku bound, “he passed and sideswiped a motorcycle, causing it to swerve into oncoming traffic. The rider was able to swerve back into his lane.”

Tafokitau kept driving in the opposite lane toward oncoming traffic.

At 2:20 p.m., one of HPD’s two MD 500E helicopters had tracked Tafokitau from 6th Avenue in Kaimuki until he got onto the H-1 freeway and headed westbound.

The helicopter followed him until near Haleiwa when they returned to the Daniel K. Inouye Airport to refuel.

Once airborne again they found Tafokitau on Kameha­meha Highway near Kahu­ku, now headed north and westbound.

As Tafokitau drove southbound toward Waimea Bay, the “roadway traffic got very crowded.”

As a result, the Scion was driving on the wrong side of the street for several miles while headed south,” according to the prosecutor’s finding.

At 3:37 p.m. the HPD helicopter saw foot traffic by Laniakea Beach move toward the roadway with their cellphones pointed out, “apparently trying to film the Scion.”

The helicopter crew flew closer to the ground to wave the bystanders back for safety, turning into the wind, facing the Scion.

The HPD helicopter crew saw Tafokitau “insert the rifle into the hole in the windshield of the Scion” and saw “three distinct flashes coming from the Scion” and realized that Tafokitau was shooting at the helicopter.

“The pilot took immediate evasive action to avoid being shot,” according to the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney.

At 4:11 p.m. HPD Patrol District 7 CRU officers stopped their truck at the intersection of Kalanianaole Highway and Kalaniiki Street intersection.

Tafokitau also headed “eastbound in the most makai lane shoulder, made a wide U-turn to head back westbound” on Kalanianaole Highway and stuck his rifle out the hole in the windshield of the Scion and pointed it at the officers.

One of the CRU officers fired three shots at Tafokitau as he finished the U-Turn and headed westbound toward the H-1 freeway.

An HPD captain was in his subsidized vehicle on Kalanianaole Highway headed eastbound toward that same intersection and was shot at by Tafokitau but uninjured.

An HPD sergeant and officer were in a CRU truck from Patrol District 3 approaching the same intersection when they were also fired upon by Tafokitau but not injured.

At 4:14 p.m.Tafokitau drove the Scion westbound on H-1, and took the Kapiolani Street exit, turned right on Date Street, then right on University Avenue.

He then drove north on University Avenue toward the University of Hawaii-­Manoa when an HPD corporal and another officer who had been in pursuit of Tafokitau stopped his vehicle on University Avenue right past the exit, parallel to the curb and took cover behind the front passenger wheel and while the other officer took cover on the passenger side of the vehicle.

As the Scion approached, the HPD corporal reported hearing four to six gunshots coming from the Scion and said Tafokitau shot at them as he drove by.

After Tafokitau passed, the HPD corporal heard the officer “yell that he had been shot.”

The corporal broadcast on the police radio that shots “were fired and an officer was down” and he saw blood coming from the patrol officer’s abdomen.

An HPD sergeant and officer who had been shot at by the intersection on Kalanianaole Highway saw Tafokitau pass in front of him heading northbound on University Avenue and heard gunshots when he got to University Avenue and Dole Street.

The sergeant saw Tafokitau pass Dole Street and then open the driver’s side door. The sergeant maneuvered his CRU truck from Patrol District 3 onto the southbound lanes of traffic on University Avenue, just north of Dole Street, while Tafokitau got out of the Scion holding the rifle.

Tafokitau opened fire at the HPD sergeant’s truck and the sergeant and another officer “got out of the D3 CRU truck and started shooting back at (Tafokitau) with their Glocks.”

Tafokitau “fell to the ground and the sergeant called for a ceasefire.”

Four officers who had been in the District 7 CRU truck on Kalanianaole also had been shot at by Tafokitau.

One officer “exited the D7 CRU truck and fired rounds” with his own AR-15 while two other officers got out out of the CRU truck and “fired with their Glocks.”

One of the CRU officers was hit by Tafokitau three times: one to his head, one to his left eye and one to his left shoulder.

Tafokitau had 14 prior felony convictions dating to 1993.

They included six counts of robbery in the first degree, one count of carrying or use of a firearm in the commission of a separate felony, one count of felon in possession, and six counts of robbery in the second degree.

He was sentenced in March 2002 of robbery in the first degree and sent to prison and was “released from custody after maxing out his sentence on March 3, 2022,” according to the Department of Prosecuting Attorney.

Some time later, he told a relative “I’m not going back to prison,” Alm said.

On Nov. 24, 2023, Tafokitau was charged with numerous counts that included being a felon in possession, place to keep pistol or revolver, two counts of possession of prohibited detached ammunition magazine and place to keep ammunition.

A warrant of arrest was served on Tafokitau on the same date with bail set at $150,000. On Dec. 1, Tafokitau posted bond and got out of jail.

Nineteen days later, a no-bail warrant of arrest was issued for Tafokitau for one count of attempted murder in the first degree, five counts of attempted murder in the second degree, six counts of carrying or use of a firearm in the commission of a separate felony, one count of felon in possession, and one count of assault in the second degree, triggering an HPD search.

Honolulu police Chief Arthur “Joe” Logan said the department appreciates the “thorough review and investigation” conducted by Alm’s office.

“While most of us were spending New Year’s Day with our family and friends, HPD officers were searching for a convicted felon who had shot and injured his ex-girlfriend that morning. After a dangerous driving spree that traversed Oahu and endangered motorists, the general public and HPD officers, this individual was fatally shot by officers as he walked down University Avenue pointing and firing an AR-15 at them,” Logan said. “He shot and wounded two officers who are still recovering nearly a year later. The individual who shot the officers and endangered many others had been released after serving 20 years in prison. He had expressed that he did not plan to return to prison.”