For the second time in a week, a suspect has died after being shot by police officers.

Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha said the latest shooting occurred at 2:40 a.m. Wednesday when a 52-year-old man was shot multiple times by two officers who were attempting to arrest him for driving a stolen car in Pacific Palisades.

The suspect’s passenger, a woman, was arrested at the scene of the shooting in the 2100 block of Komo Mai Drive on suspicion of car theft. She was slightly injured, police said.

Although three officers were involved in the incident, only two fired shots, seven in all, Kealoha said at a news conference at the main police station.

One officer is an 18-year Police Department veteran while the others have 11 and four years of service. Police did not say which officers were involved in the shooting. All three were placed on paid administrative leave, as is routine while an internal investigation is conducted of a police officer involved in a shooting.

The officers were in two unmarked police cars with blue lights on when they saw the stolen black Honda Accord parked in front of a home that neighbors said is a known "drug house."

Kealoha said, the suspect didn’t live in the house.

Because the house is well known to police, Kealoha said, the officers checked the license plate of the car and discovered that it was stolen.

Kealoha gave the sequence of events:

» The three officers got out of their cars and approached the suspect in the Honda. The suspect drove toward the officer who was approaching him from the front, striking the officer’s vehicle.

» After hitting the officer’s car, the suspect then reversed the car toward two officers who were behind him.

» The suspect then tried to run down the officer in front of him, forcing the officer to jump out of the way to avoid being hit.

» The two officers who had been behind the suspect’s car approached the sides of the car with their handguns drawn. The officer on the driver’s side of the stolen Honda fired "multiple shots" at the vehicle. Kealoha said the officer in front of the car also fired at the driver several times.

» The car rolled into a rock wall fronting the Pacific Palisades home with the driver slumped over the wheel.

The suspect, who police said had 10 felony convictions, died at the scene.

The police did not release the man’s name, but said that he was a multiple offender.

Kealoha told reporters that police believe the officers’ use of lethal force was "appropriate."

"Our goal is not ever to use lethal force. Our goal is never to have a fatality, but sometimes we are put in situations where we have to use lethal force," he said.

"In this situation and the last situation (in Waikiki), when an officer comes and tries to stop a vehicle or stop a suspect, please stop, because you are going to place the officer’s life in danger" as well as the lives of community members.

"If there is a message out there, please obey the police officer’s orders — if they tell you to stop," Kealoha said.

This was the third time police have fired at a suspect within the past month.

On July 30, a six-year veteran of the police force, also believed to be a member of its plainclothes detail, shot and killed Richard Nelson, 52, on Kuhio Avenue. Nelson, who was drunk at the time, tried to flee in his car and nearly struck the officer after hitting a bus.

About a week earlier, on July 24, a police sergeant shot at a man driving a stolen car on Red Hill. The stolen Toyota was recovered, but the suspect was never caught.

Kealoha said police don’t believe the two stolen-car cases are related.

Several witnesses said the Komo Mai Drive home where the shooting occurred is a known drug house where cars are parked nearby at all hours, "with people coming and going."

A neighbor who lives across the street said he was awakened during the incident when he heard "tires screeching," adding, "But I didn’t think too much of it since there are always people drag-racing on this street."

Another neighbor said, "There were at least six shots, which at first I thought were fireworks. I didn’t put two and two together until I came out and saw three or four police officers."

Police used a white sheet to cover the front windshield of the black Honda, which had a badly damaged hood, to prevent anyone from seeing the body until it was removed by the Medical Examiner’s Office just before 9 a.m.

Police closed Komo Mai Drive between Auhulu and Aumakua streets for eight hours while they examined the crime scene and removed the body.

Kealoha reiterated that it isn’t feasible for police to shoot out the tires of fleeing vehicles because it creates "a large margin of error."

"That is why we have to shoot at center mass (chest of suspect) to stop the threat," Kealoha said.