Police encounters with the public in response to reports of trouble can go wrong in innumerable, unexpected ways. In a chaotic episode last week captured in clips of body-camera video, the public glimpsed a variation on that theme, ending in the death of Lindani Myeni, 29, in Nuuanu.
Essential details of what happened still are pending, including toxicology studies and other elements of the investigation. It is puzzling why Myeni, who had no criminal record, had entered the home at 91 Coelho Way.
Some information came out with the release of a partial video record, and that measure of disclosure was encouraging. But release of the full video, rather than just sections police deemed “relevant,” would provide fuller context of where things went tragically awry.
And much more understanding and discussion about police safety protocols is needed for the public to gain confidence in the Honolulu Police Department approach to community policing. Above all, the officers should identify themselves as police at the outset of any stressful case, with the hope that clear communication could maintain calm in the interaction.
In the April 14 incident, Myeni was reported to police by the anxious residents, who were startled, they told police, when Myeni removed his shoes, walked into the home, sat down, and struck up a conversation.
He ultimately left, according to police, but that’s when the pressure mounted. HPD officials acknowledged that the responding officers had not identified themselves as police before ordering Myeni to “get on the ground,” and there was a frenzied fight. Myeni, plainly not complying, charged at the officers, who tried a Taser weapon without effect before they fired the fatal shots. As for the officers, all three were injured by Myeni’s attacks, one severely enough to be hospitalized for days.
During a week already torn by protest over police-involved shootings near Minneapolis, Chicago and Portland, Ore., the death of an unarmed Black man in Honolulu at the hands of police was a more than distressing event. And it came just a week after HPD fatally shot Iremamber Sykap, a 16-year-old Micronesian boy, after a series of crimes and a car chase.
In that case, there had been reports that the male suspects in the car were armed, and that the vehicle the victim was driving was involved in an earlier armed robbery. The stolen Honda rammed two squad cars before being driven through a chainlink fence and crashing into the canal on Kalakaua Avenue, so the ending — police shooting at the car — was not an unpredictable outcome.
Even so, the public deserves an update on that case. Police have not yet released video records of that April 5 incident, which they should do promptly. Body-camera technology was adopted in the interest of transparency and should be utilized with that in mind.
Police confrontations can be fraught, so it’s to be expected that officers would have the potential of danger to themselves and others in mind as they approach a scene. The January 2020 tragedy in which an evicted tenant set fire to a Diamond Head house and killed two officers who had responded surely left a mark on their colleagues.
But there still are steps to be taken before deadly force can be reasonably applied. Did Myeni realize they were police in that darkened environment, flashlights shining at him? It’s impossible to know — there’s no asking the married father of two now — but this is why simply calling out “Police!” and making basic inquiries before any weapons are drawn would seem to be a fundamental, responsible move.
Racial tensions do not afflict Honolulu policing in quite the same way as in other cities — the police force here is a closer demographic match to the community. But there is tension all the same. HPD must refocus on a key responsibility: finding ways to defuse conflicts that should not end in fatalities.
