A 26-year-old man was arrested Tuesday after allegedly carjacking a pickup truck in Nanakuli before ramming a police vehicle and trying to steal another car in Kaneohe.
Josiah Weiland-Vierra was arrested at 1:50 p.m. Tuesday near the intersection of Kahekili Highway and Kahuhipa Street, according to the Honolulu Police Department’s adult arrest log.
He was arrested on suspicion of robbery in the first degree, criminal property damage in the first degree, two counts of terroristic threatening in the first degree, and car theft.
Weiland-Vierra remains in custody while police confer with the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney on potential criminal charges. He has 17 prior state convictions, including seven felonies.
Weiland-Vierra’s prior felony convictions include car theft, assaulting a law enforcement officer, theft, and promoting dangerous drugs.
At about 11:20 am Tuesday, Weiland-Vierra allegedly pulled a “firearm and demanded property” from a 26-year-old man in Nanakuli before taking the man’s Toyota Tacoma truck.
The firearm allegedly was an airsoft pistol, which shoots plastic pellets.
Patrol units “located the stolen vehicle and attempted to stop the suspect,” according to a description of the incident from HPD.
“The suspect refused to stop and fled from officers” through three police patrol districts.
The Helicopter Section of HPD’s Specialized Services Division deployed one of the department’s two MD 500E helicopters to aid patrol and crime reduction unit officers tracking Weiland-Vierra.
In Kaneohe, Weiland- Vierra allegedly backed the Tacoma into a blue and white HPD sport utility vehicle, disabling the Tacoma and injuring a female officer.
Weiland-Vierra allegedly got out of the car, jumped over the highway median and tried to get into three other cars using the airsoft gun he had on him.
Honolulu police Chief Arthur “Joe” Logan told the Honolulu Police Commission on Wednesday that the incident was over in 45 to 50 minutes.
By the time officers engaged in the pursuit were able to convey accurate information to command about Weiland-Vierra’s whereabouts, it would not have helped anyone, Logan said.
HPD put a new process in place for gathering and quickly disseminating information of real-time emergencies after the New Year’s Day police pursuit and shootout that left two officers wounded and a suspect dead.
Logan told police commissioners Wednesday that process was ongoing Tuesday when the incident ended before information was ready to go out.
“By the time we got the information to get out, the incident had ended. To say ‘why we didn’t tell everyone they are going to the windward side’ … I don’t know where they are going … things happened so fast … in this incident,” Logan said. “Forty-five minutes is not a long time.”
