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Man dies after being shot by Honolulu police near State Capitol

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ROB SHIKINA / RSHIKINA@STARADVERTISER.COM

Honolulu police are responding to an officer-involved shooting off South Beretania Street this morning. The incident happened before 9 a.m., police said.

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ROB SHIKINA / RSHIKINA@STARADVERTISER.COM

Police tape off the parking lot at the Hawaii State Department of Health on Sunday after a man reportedly armed with a machete attacked officers this morning.

A man died today after a Honolulu Police Department officer responding to a report of an argument this morning shot him off South Beretania Street, police said.

State deputy sheriffs called police at about 8:30 a.m. about the man arguing with another male near the state Department of Health building on the mauka side of South Beretania Street at Punchbowl. At about the same time, preparations were being made for the Children and Youth Day event, which was held today at the State Capitol across the street from the shooting.

Sheriffs used pepper spray on the man, but it was ineffective and they called police, said Acting HPD Chief Jonathon Grems during a news conference this evening at police headquarters.

Honolulu police found the man near a utility box on the back side of the Health Department with a 2-foot machete and a pair of garden shears at his feet. When an officer tried to detain the man for terroristic threatening, the man picked up a machete and struck the officer in the torso, Grems said.

Two other officers fired their weapons, one a Taser and the other a firearm, discharging the weapon about four times, and striking the man in the torso. He was taken to a hospital where he died.

Grems said the officer who fired his firearm has four years of service with the department and will be placed on administrative leave, as is normal policy after a shooting. The officer who was struck by the machete was wearing a vest and didn’t appear to be injured by the weapon, but he did hit his head on a concrete wall while trying to back away from the man and was taken to a hospital.

Police tape marked off the area behind the Department of Health while officers investigated.

Several participants of the festival said they were setting up for the event when the shooting happened and they weren’t aware of it until emergency vehicles started showing up across the street.

Grems said the man was in a confined area, which had concrete walls around the utility box, and the safety of the people attending the children’s event was not at jeopardy.

Previous coverage:

A man died today after he was shot in an officer-involved shooting off South Beretania Street this morning, police said.

State workers for the Children and Youth Day 2018 festival at the State Capitol, across the street from the shooting, said they heard details of the shooting over their radios.

The workers said police were interacting with a man armed with a machete and another weapon near the state Department of Health when police pepper sprayed him.

The man then swung the machete at an officer, who dodged the attack, and another officer shot him, the workers said.

According to the city’s Department of Emergency Services, a male in his 40s was treated with for apparent gunshot wounds around 8:45 a.m. Paramedics transported him in critical condition to a hospital. Police said he later died.

Police tape marked off the area behind the Department of Health near Punchbowl Street while officers investigated.

Several participants of the festival said they were setting up when the shooting happened and they weren’t aware anything had happened until emergency vehicles started showing up across the street.

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