A retired assistant chief of the Hawaii Police Department was arrested in Kona early Sunday after he allegedly violated a restraining order amid a domestic dispute.
Hawaii County police arrested Mitchell Kanehailua Jr., 57, at about 5:14 a.m. Sunday, according to a news release from police. Kanehailua was charged Monday with violating the protective order, attempted burglary, attempted assault and assault. He is being held in lieu of $9,000 bail.
Kanehailua retired from the Police Department in September 2019.
He is at least the fifth current or former county police officer to be arrested in Hawaii during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Kona patrol officers responded Sunday to a report of a “domestic dispute in the 73-4000 block of Hawaii Belt Road in Kailua-Kona,” according to the release.
Responding officers
contacted the 41-year-old woman, who is a Hawaii police officer, who alleged Kanehailua violated a temporary restraining order she was granted.
The woman alleged
that Kanehailua is an ex-
boyfriend who came onto her property and tried to
get into the house Sunday.
Kanehailua was then contacted outside the victim’s residence by a 47-year-old female witness who became a victim after Kanehailua allegedly “unsuccessfully attempted to strike.”
“Shortly after, he was
contacted by several male parties and detained pending officers’ arrival,” according to the Hawaii Police Department.
Kanehailua was placed under arrest for violation of an order of protection and harassment. He was taken to the Kealakehe Police Station, where he remains in custody as detectives with the Area II Juvenile Aid Section continue this investigation,
according to police.
According to state court records, Kanehailua faced three separate allegations of domestic violence dating to July 2021. The most recent, filed Feb. 15, is marked “confidential and not public record at this time” in the state’s Judiciary Information Management System.
In February, Kanehailua’s ex-wife and daughter were granted temporary restraining orders against him. His daughter eventually withdrew her order three days
after she got it.
In her original petition to the court, she wrote that she worried her father was battling depression and sadness after his mother’s death in 2022. She described erratic, uncharacteristic behavior marked by sudden spurts of anger and a bout of violence on Jan. 29 that required police intervention after Kanehailua went after his brother while surrounded by officers.
In a petition for an order
of protection, Kanehailua allegedly was found in the
yard of his mother’s home screaming at police officers that they killed his mother, after his daughter called 911 for a wellness check.
His brother, also a retired assistant Hawaii county police chief, arrived and tried to talk to him, but Kanehailua acted as if he didn’t recognize him before attacking him, according to the petition.
He was restrained before being hospitalized and
sedated.