Someone in a white van shot a BB or pellet gun at a group of high-schoolers near the Makiki Fire Station on Friday afternoon, sending a 15-year-old boy to the hospital.
Police say this was the 18th BB or pellet gun shooting, and the sixth incident in which people were injured, since Sept. 22.
The latest victims say they think the shootings are gang-related. Victims and witnesses say they heard the shooter yell out “Goon Life,” known to some of them to be a gang name.
“I think it has something to do with a gang,” said Caleb Skipps, a 15-year-old Roosevelt High School student who was shot in the right chest by what he said was a “CO2-powered pistol.” “The gang needs to be shut down if it’s going to stop.”
Police Capt. John McCarthy said they don’t know what that term refers to, but will be looking into that among other things.
Police found a van that matched the description parked at the 1400 block of Kona Street near Ala Moana Center, and arrested the 25-year-old male driver on suspicion of second-degree assault. The man did not have a local address.
Police don’t think the same people are responsible for all 18 shootings, but some may be responsible for more than one, Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Sarah Yoro said.
Emergency Medical Services transported just one of the victims, a 15-year-old boy, to the hospital in stable condition.
The 15-year-old, a McKinley High School student, was shot and bleeding from a wound to his collarbone, said Bronson, a Roosevelt High School student who was shot at and declined to give his last name. “I ran straight to the fire station and told them what happened,” he said. “Firefighters came out as my friends were walking down.”
Mason Kishimoto, a 15-year-old Roosevelt junior who lives in Kalihi, said Goon Life “used to be just a graffiti group, and now it’s a gang.” Part of their initiation includes surviving a group mobbing, he said.
Friday’s shooting appears to be the first Honolulu case in which people were injured. The previous incidents were in Wahiawa and Pearl City.
In the Makiki shooting, several teens were sitting on a stone wall on Piikoi Street near the intersection with Mott-Smith Drive when a white, older-model van pulled up and stopped, and a passenger fired at them, the teens said.
Bronson said the weapon was a CO2-powered pellet gun “because you could see the smoke coming out.”
McCarthy said there were four to six victims.
Skipps said his girlfriend was hit in the hand, but she did not come forward.
Mary Bagasol, 24, an employee at nearby Hale Nani Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, said she saw a white Dodge van. “The passenger was sitting on the window with his legs facing inside the car, shooting at the kids.”
“The kids were trying to hide and sprinted away, trying to get away,” she said.
She said both the passenger and the driver appeared to be in their late teens.
Elijah Spoozak, a 16-year-old McKinley High School student, pulled up one leg of his baggy shorts, revealing where he was shot on his left buttock for police to examine.
Kishimoto was shot on the arm, which “left a red mark that went away.”
The passenger, a slim, dark-complexioned male about 5 feet 9 inches tall, leaned over the side of the van and fired, he said.
Kishimoto said when he saw what looked like a regular black handgun, he yelled out and, unlike his friends who ran, “I froze, actually.”
He said police brought him to an Ala Moana ramen restaurant, where he identified the van.
The rash of shootings began Sept. 22 when a teen in front of Highlands Intermediate School in Pearl City was struck in the back by pellet gun ammunition and received minor injuries. That same day, a Pearl City man said he saw two teens drive up to his house in an older-model green Toyota sedan and that one fired at his two dogs in the front yard.
The shootings appear to have ramped up, with three more Wednesday, including another teen near Waipahu Intermediate School.
Some of the shooters targeted vehicles, including a tour bus on the H-1 freeway near Aloha Stadium. Pet dog shootings have also occurred in Pearl City and Windward Oahu.
The cases include felony assault, criminal property damage, reckless endangering and cruelty to animals, depending on the injuries and the circumstances.
Police ask the public to be on the lookout for possible suspicious people or vehicles. Anyone who has information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or *CRIME on a cellphone.
