Suspect in death of man crushed by car has long criminal record
COURTESY HPD
Brandon Reis
A 33-year-old Pearl City man who made an initial appearance in court Monday in connection with the death of a man run over by his car last week in Kalihi has a lengthy criminal history and is awaiting four other criminal trials, including one for an armed home invasion robbery.
Brandon Reis, of Komo Mai Drive, was charged Sunday with manslaughter, first-degree terroristic threatening, and three firearms offenses in connection with the death of Kyen Knowles. He was being held at Oahu Community Correctional Center unable to post bail of $1 million.
Knowles, 36, died Wednesday of mechanical asphyxia after he was pinned under his 1991 Lexus sedan on Waterhouse Street between Kopke Street and Gulick Avenue.
Surveillance video shows man walked up to Knowles’ car about 5 p.m. Wednesday as he was seated inside and pulled out what appeared to be a handgun, according to a police affidavit filed Monday in Honolulu District Court. Knowles tried to reverse to get out of the way and the suspect shot into his car, the document says. Knowles tried to get out of the moving car, but accidentally ran over himself, pinning himself under the tire. The suspect is seen walking past Knowles before getting into a red car and fleeing.
Police initially classified Knowles’ case as a traffic death. Court documents say homicide detectives began investigating the following day after police learned about surveillance video from a business showing the shooting.
Several witnesses also told police they heard a “pop” and saw a man running from the scene, documents say.
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Family said Knowles had gotten into an argument at a fast-food restaurant while picking up food for his kids, and on his way home someone fired a gun at him on Waterhouse Street.
Knowles, who lived just two blocks from the scene, is survived by three young children.
Before Reis was arrested on Friday, he out on bonds totaling $350,000 for four separate criminal cases that have been delayed for various reasons since 2012.
The bonds posted by Reis were: $75,000 for a November 2011 first-degree robbery case, $125,000 for a January 2013 case in which he was charged with first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, three counts of kidnapping, use of a firearm and impersonating a law enforcement officer, $50,000 for a September 2013 case involving car theft and driving without a license, and $100,000 for a Feb. 2014 case involving car theft, drugs, driving without a license, and firearms.
In the January 2013 case, Reis is accused of entering an Ewa Beach home with two men claiming to be police executing a search warrant. Reis allegedly carried a long gun and tied one of the residents while the two other men searched the home.
He was scheduled to begin trial for at least one of those cases on June 9, but the trial was delayed because prior attorneys didn’t request transcripts, said Reis’ attorney Keith Shigetomi. He said Reis was also arrested for traffic-related warrants.
“He hasn’t been convicted of any of those offenses and that’s what the purpose of the trial is,” Shigetomi said.
Reis has an extensive criminal record with 39 arrests and five convictions. In 2003, he was sentenced to 10 years for first-degree burglary. His other convictions include assault, abuse and probation violations.
60 responses to “Suspect in death of man crushed by car has long criminal record”
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Only in Hawaii could a guy who looks like that stand a chance of “impersonating a law enforcement officer”.
I was thinking the same thing. On top of that, look at how long it takes to get this guy to trial. He may have committed crimes all the way back to 2011 and is still awaiting trial and he apparently was allowed to go free even when some of the charges are extremely serious. This loser needs to be permanently remove from society.
True but it is the same old story: lax courts, inept judges, weak prosecution, massive incompetence, etc. leads to a man like this being out on the street. Truth is, Hawaii is dominated by the 20% of the criminals that cause 80% of the crime. Get tough on the career 20% please!
Our lawmakers and judges should be locked up for letting dangerous criminals like this roam our streets. No accountability whatsoever. What a crock.
Darn liberals, but who keeps voting democrats?
It has a lot to do with ‘ohana’ and who-knows-who.
Every judge that let this guy walk should be put in prison.
Grow up, you are 53 years old! This guy should be kept in jail for 30 years, he is a non-contributing member of society – a perfect one word definition – SPONGE.
“Sponge” is exactly what he’ll become once he’s sent back to prison – soaking up all our tax dollars to keep him housed and fed. His only real contribution to society will be as fertilizer but unfortunately that may take a while.
This is the strangest case and how law enforcement has flip-flopped in the charges.
Because ‘law enforcement’ doesn’t have the sophisticated techniques as on mainland, nor are they likely to want to learn. It’s the ‘eeeny-meeny-miney-mo’ way to investigate–If it don’t fit, try another one.
The guy probably used a gun with blanks and the driver got out thinking and looking for the gunshot wounds.
unlikely
Then the guy must be the worst shooter in history. How can he miss at point blank range? LOL!
39 arrests & 5 convictions…glad to see the 3 strikes law working so well.
Correct me if I’m wrong but Hawaii does not have a three strikes law.
I believe it’s six here. Or was it seven? Who’s counting…
it’s always been two strikes and a lot of foul balls.
Hard for them to count when 90% of the elected government staff are mostly amputees, therefore they don’t have enough toes and fingers to count to three (this also includes mental amputations, a rare disease that only exists in dysfunctional Democrat run places like Hawaii that keep electing “stupid” over and over again)
95% of burglaries in Honolulu get never solved, that means for every one guilty verdict 95 guys never get caught.
Allaha, do you have any references to cite your outrageous statement?
Does HPD follow up on the gun that was used? Was it stolen? Was the gun registered to him? Would be good to keep track of how these perps acquire their guns.
Yes, how did this person acquire a gun? With his long criminal history one might presume that he would not be allowed to own a firearm given the scrutiny of a background check. Yet despite Hawaii’s gun laws he still acquired a weapon as criminals don’t care about the law. Just another example of how passing more restrictive gun laws only effect law-abiding citizens and do not deter the commission of crimes such as this.
What this tragedy shows is:
A) Having a huge amount of guns in the US doesn’t protect victims (as gun nuts falsely claim).
B) Having a huge amount of guns in the US is what makes it so easy for criminals to get a hold of them (as gun nuts refuse to acknowledge).
C) Background checks and other ‘case by case’ restrictions don’t do much to prevent gun violence by criminals (the nuts are right about this).
D) The effective solution to gun violence is to repeal the archaic 2nd Amendment, and to restrict guns across the board. Australia did this and guess what? Gun violence, suicides and gun crimes plummeted. No mass shootings.
E) Gun nuts will fight this because while they talk tough on the outside, they are frightened little cowards inside – afraid of other people. Some are racist and patanoid from projecting hate onto others. Fear and paranoia keep gun nuts from looking at common sense.
F) Corporations that profit from our gun culture oppose doing the right thing by feeding paranoia and fear. They do this out of greed, and they have enriched themselves while their products are used to cause great misery throughout the nation. Their products also cost the nation hundreds of $billions each year.
G) Across the board gun restrictions will happen when enough of us are tired of subsidizing the gun industry and their cowardly customers. When we face the common sense facts about guns and human nature, we will pick wise leaders who will get this done.
You don’t have an agenda do you Danno? Should have gone to the Koko head range this past weekend, they had all kinds of guns to shoot for free. It was a blast.
You’re so right but made too much sense for the gun nuts.
Sorry Danno, your really wrong … for instance, My family has been protected on 3 occasions over the last 30 years here in Hawaii. Break in, and a home invasion. Guns stopped them cold… they turned and ran as soon as they saw we were armed. And about Australia… crime has escalated so much that they are considering repealing the that anti-law and letting people have guns to protect themselves again. Bigger dog is right, you should take a gun safety class… I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the information you’ll receive.
Stan. Your points about Australia’s situation not being uniformly positive is the first I have heard of this I will look into it.
I’m sorry to hear about the home invasions you have had. Where do you live?
There is a middle of the road approach, which wouldn’t require repeal of 2nd amendment: Across the board restrictions on guns and ammo except for 1 small capacity, small caliber gun per eligible adult.
This would provide the deterrent effect you feel the need to have, and also reduce the number of guns in circulation, availability to criminals and general misuse.
Murder rate by population Australia vs US
Recent mass murders committed in the United States, including those that have taken place in schools, churches and a movie theatre, have re-ignited the debate on gun control laws. Australia’s gun control laws have been held up as an example of a workable solution for the safer management of guns and gun licensing.
Crime statistics before and after the implementation of gun laws provide a quantifiable measure of their impact. As a consequence, Australia’s gun laws and their impact have become part of the American gun debate. The gun buy-back program which Australia implemented in 1996, purchased and destroyed mostly semi-automatic and pump action firearms
From the National Australian Homicide Monitoring program report 2012: “The homicide rate has continued to decline each year, since 1989-90. The periods 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 are the lowest homicide rate since data collection began in 1989.”
In fact, the Australian murder rate has fallen to close to one per 100,000 while the US rate, thankfully lower than in the early 1990s, is still roughly at 4.5 per 100,000 – over four times as high. Moreover, robberies in Australia occur at only about half the rate of the US (58 in Australia versus 113.1 per 100,000 in the US in 2012).
You’re not talking about passing or repealing a law.
Changing the constitution isn’t easy, nor should it be.
Yes, while ugly guys like him are out hustling and scaring wits of the local citizenry, the State decided to include their gun ownership data base with the Feds. What for if, the local problems still cannot be resolved? Bureaucratic feel good syndrome! Gotcha!
With that new law, I wonder if he would have registered his gun.
He wouldn’t have to register. That is a requirement for law-abiding citizens.
Exactly, criminals have no laws to follow..
By making more gun laws does not prevent criminals from having guns….The bad guys will always have guns.
Why was this thug out on bail? He is an obvious threat to public safety.
I love the “Thug Life” Tattoo on this guys face!
Life without possibility of parole all in solitary for this guy.
Ship him to N. Korea.
Only America allows undesirables to enter. Obama/Clinton open arms.
Don’t think spending our tax dollars to fly this guy anywhere is worth the cost. What we really need is some chum to feed our ocean fish so we can catch more tuna and enjoy some poke afterwards.
All the gun laws we have and this convicted felon was still in possession of a firearm? Would you agree we need more laws to keep perps with 39 priors off the streets? Won’t matter if the judicial system releases him yet again. 40 priors currently and counting. Cops keep catching him and then what? This in insanity at it’s best demonstrated and proven. Ok Gov Ige what now?
One SA article states Brandon’s age as 33. This article states 53. I buy 33, unless bruddah’s mug shot is twenty years old.
“out on bail awaiting three criminal trials.” Dang!!!!!!!! Life of crime pays in the nei.
So very sad Mr. Knowles lost his life!
Why is this guy on the streets and not in jail with the rap sheet he has. The courts need to be accountable for not imposing harsher penalties and not protecting the community
Jail is a waste of tax dollars. We need some chum, the Tiger Sharks need to be fed so they don’t attack the surfers and beach goers due to hunger.
The the judge wants him to kill or try to kill somebody before they lock him up?
I think he just did both of those things in this incident.
This guy is just the poster child for what is wrong with out local criminal justice system. This guy is a habitual/career criminal who needs to be locked away for a long time
but our Judges are notoriously liberal and do not have the stomach to drop the hammer on many of these low life’s which is what they are. They are not going to change
and the only thing that really mellows them out somewhat is old age. Even then, they will never be the kind of people you would want to know or associate with.
SA and the other media in this town are also complicit in this as they will almost never, ever name the Judges who day in and day are giving out lenient sentences
because they do not believe in punishment and are overly concerned about the welfare of the low life before them and not about the numerous victims these low life’s have
hurt.
Age 33 with long criminal record of 39 arrests 5 convictions, why is he out on the street ? This guy obviously has not been rehabbed and will not learn to be a productive law abiding citizen. There’s a time when enough is enough, time to write him off, he is a total human waste. Before another citizen is harmed, he needs to be executed, bullet to his head, from his own gun.
It. Won’t. Happen.
How many more criminals like him are walking amongst us
Good point. Probably a lot.
WHAT A LOSER !!!!!
This guy should have been locked up with his long criminal record. Hawaii’s criminal justice system is failing us.
He was arrested for armed robbery in 2013. Waianae man to appear in court over armed robbery
http://www.staradvertiser.com/breaking-news/waianae-man-to-appear-in-court-over-armed-robbery/
I can’t wait to hear who the judge was that released this guy pending 3 criminal trials.
2 of the 3 pending cases are serious felony charges, given his previous criminal record, this guy should never have been on the street to commit this manslaughter crime in the first place. Another avoidable innocent death, good job Kaneshiro.
I think Kaneshiro was a disaster the first time around. Is it stupidity or political cowardice that excludes people like Chuck Marsland from office?
Why is this creep allowed to breathe air? His latest victim left three small children behind! Now his bail is $1,000,000?!! How about no bail?
The Reis ohana must be so proud. Good job parents!
How many times was this creep allowed to post bond and be released???? If one of the suspected crimes involved a gun and burglaries, which could have resulted in injury or death to residents,there should be no bond. Let the pakalolo users out if no room in jail. This was a violent piece of crap that should not be let out. His mother will probably say that he was good sweet boy.