Honolulu police are searching for a person considered “armed and dangerous” after an early- morning shooting Saturday in Waianae left two people dead and two injured.
The shooting took place at Waianae Boat Harbor just before 1 a.m., according to the Honolulu Police Department. Police are investigating the case as a first- degree murder because of the multiple victims.
HPD homicide Lt. Deena Thoemmes said that an argument apparently broke out and that “gunshots were heard and multiple vehicles were seen leaving the harbor.” She said the shooter reportedly left the scene in a “dark-colored vehicle” before police arrived.
Police say a 29-year-old man was found dead in a car at the scene and a 19-year-old man died shortly after arriving at a hospital. Meanwhile, a 21-year-old woman was in critical condition after sustaining a gunshot wound, and an 18-year-old man was hospitalized and is in stable condition, she said.
Detectives were interviewing witnesses and reviewing surveillance footage. Police say it’s not clear yet whether the perpetrator may have had accomplices. Thoemmes said that “based on investigation so far, this does not appear to be a random act.”
The harbor was closed while police investigated. No description of the shooter was immediately released.
“As of now the suspect description is being investigated by detectives on the scene,” said Thoemmes. “They’re currently gathering more information.”
The shooting comes amid mounting concerns about safety and crime on Oahu’s Leeward side after several high-profile incidents of gun violence. Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board chair Jonathan Hoomanawanui said “the community is feeling unsafe … it’s getting out of hand.”
In April 59-year-old Cathy Rabellizsa-Manner and 34-year-old Gary Rabellizsa Jr. died and three others were injured in a shooting after a cockfight in Maili. Two suspects, a 23-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy, later turned themselves in to police.
In May police arrested a 16-year-old boy in the shooting death of 17-year-old Miguel Agoo Jr. in Makaha, as well as an 18-year-old woman and 16-year-old girl for allegedly aiding the suspect and hindering the investigation.
On Aug. 28 a 20-year-old man was arrested for allegedly gunning down 42-year-old Ryan Villaren in Maili on Aug. 18.
Meanwhile, no one has been arrested in the June 17 shooting of 17-year-old Richianna DeGuzman. HPD says DeGuzman was walking with a group of people near Maili Community Park when another group pulled up in an SUV and opened fire, shooting her in the head. DeGuzman survived and is recovering at a rehabilitation facility.
“The concern to me is it’s happening at a very young age,” Hoomanawanui said, noting the relative youth of many of the alleged shooters in these incidents, calling it a “trend” in the violence.
“I think that it needs to be controlled, it needs to be stopped,” said Hoomanawanui. “We need to find out who’s delivering these guns, or where they are getting these guns from, and that is going to probably take a community effort and take some time.”
City Council member Andria Tupola, who represents Leeward Oahu, said that addressing crime and safety have been a major priority on her agenda.
She noted a legislative package she introduced this week with fellow Council member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam to crack down on illegal game rooms across Oahu. Tupola said that while she didn’t know the details on Saturday’s shooting and wasn’t suggesting it had ties to gambling, she said “there’s a lot of cash, there’s weapons that are being exchanged there.”
Concerns about rising crime and violence have led to calls from some Leeward residents to increase the police presence there, but HPD has been struggling to recruit officers to fill vacant spots. Tupola said she’s been pushing in the city budget to have “at least two detective officers in our police station, but the reason why we don’t have a fully staffed Waianae police station is because we don’t have enough officers.”
But Tupola said that community members are becoming more interested in public safety amid concerns about crime and forming neighborhood watch groups along the Waianae Coast.
“I have way more neighborhood security watches throughout my district than I had when I first got elected,” said Tupola. “I can say that our town halls are becoming more frequent so that people can bring concerns and that we can get updated from HPD.”
Tupola said that two weeks ago her neighborhood security watch did a prayer walk. She said “there’s obviously a lot of things that are out of our control, but we wanted to come together as leaders and pray and walk in those areas where some of the other shootings had happened.”
