In response to three shootings in nine days that left two men dead and at least five people wounded, county, state and federal lawmakers vowed to flood the Waianae community with more police while developing a legislative and operational plan to stop the violence.
Speaking to reporters Friday at a 5 p.m. news conference at Honolulu Hale, Gov. Josh Green, Mayor Rick Blangiardi, U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda, state Reps. Cedric Gates and Darius Kila, state Sen. Cross Crabbe and Honolulu City Council member Andria Tupola promised to address the long-standing need for more law enforcement and less gun violence on the Leeward Coast.
They were flanked by Honolulu Police Chief Arthur “Joe” Logan and state Law Enforcement Director Jordan Lowe, who pledged to dramatically increase the number of uniformed and plainclothes law enforcement personnel in the area.
Logan said he is using a mix of reserve officers, overtime pay, crime reduction units and uniformed officers who want to volunteer for the effort.
The state will contribute deputy sheriffs, and armed officers from the Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement to patrol the Waianae Small Boat Harbor and state lands on the Leeward Coast.
In Waianae there are four to five police officers assigned to patrol the area.
Gates pledged to introduce legislation when state lawmakers begin a new session in January to increase mandatory minimum sentences for people caught with ghost guns or the parts and plans needed to build them.
Tokuda spoke directly Friday to White House officials, the office of Gun Violence Prevention and the U.S. Department of Justice about the violence while championing federal legislation to curtail the proliferation of homemade guns and the online tutorials that teach kids how to build them.
Tupola, who has hosted multiple town halls about the violence, vowed to keep pushing for more police. She pledged to work with the Council to increase hiring and establish retention bonuses for police officers to address the chronically understaffed police beats that total 10 officers at any time for the entire Leeward Coast.
HPD is short about 400 officers.
The unified front presented to the public Friday was designed to “discuss the unified effort to respond to increased lethal gun violence along the Leeward Coast of Oahu,” according to a city news release.
The lawmakers, administrators and law enforcement met late into the night Thursday, committed to doing whatever it takes to take away the guns and eradicate the drug trafficking that comes with it.
“Our hearts go out to all the people in Waianae for what’s happened in this past week. What happened is unacceptable, multiple … shootings like that. … Since we’ve been in office, our position on guns has been very strong. Enough is enough,” said Blangiardi, who vowed to meet “force with force,” with the Honolulu Police Department being the “tip of the spear.”
“I’ve said that all along, and we’re at a moment in time … that demands that for not only (the Waianae) community, but islandwide,” said Blangiardi, who reached out to Green and the state for help Thursday night. “Right now our plan is just to get through this weekend with maximum forces as we evolve our thinking. But I can promise you this: We will provide protection for as long as it takes. This is a turning point.”
Green echoed Blangiardi’s call for peace and increased law enforcement, saying there has been “enough chaos. It has to end.”
“Our concerns continue to ramp up about the safety of the community in Waianae and the Leeward Coast. We’ve had concerns about gun violence for quite some time. We have concerns about ghost guns. We have concerns … that anyone is getting hurt. But repeated fatal shootings on the Leeward Coast are beyond worrisome. They are just horrifying,” said Green, who appointed Maj. Gen. Kenneth S. Hara, adjutant general for the state Department of Defense, to oversee the state’s collaboration with HPD. “The time has come for a deep collaboration (with the city) to end the violence … on Oahu. As we all know, the (HPD) chief does his best, but there are finite resources.”
Logan said HPD is concerned about the entire Leeward Coast and the entire island, but the immediate focus is on the Waianae Coast. HPD is providing additional patrol and plainclothes resources to the command in the area.
“We’ll be working with our federal and state partners in law enforcement to saturate the areas, to patrol the areas in greater numbers to be a visible presence all throughout,” Logan said. “This is a great collaboration, and we will continue to do this for the foreseeable future.”
Tokuda has been “raising the alarm for the past two years” on Capitol Hill about the “need to preserve a lot of the progressive work at the state level to keep communities safe.”
“The progressive, strong gun laws that we’ve passed here in Hawaii, and enacted, quite frankly have shriveled in the face” of a U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing for concealed carry weapons, Tokuda said.
“It’s really been difficult given … the gross inaction of Congress to pass strong gun laws that will keep our families, our children, our schools, our communities and our people safe,” Tokuda said. “When I look around, whether it’s Waianae or any other community across this state, I fear that Hawaii’s gun culture, which previously was one of subsistence and hunting, has now gone the way of what we see on the continent … violence. Our families, our communities, our Waianae deserve better.”
On Aug. 6 a 31-year-old man was shot and killed at the Waianae Small Boat Harbor following a long-running dispute with a 25-year-old man.
Rastan Jaitano Hekah Brown-Castro was indicted Tuesday by an Oahu grand jury in connection with the death that day of Cheylo Perkins-Chongtim.
Brown-Castro was arrested at 11:12 a.m. Aug. 6 at 87-0891 Farrington Highway on suspicion of second-degree murder. He allegedly crashed a truck and fled on foot after the shooting, prompting a nearby school to tighten security.
On Wednesday an HPD patrol officer was forced to fire two shots at 60-year-old Alston “Kaipo” Awong, killing him, after Awong refused repeated orders to drop a stolen handgun he used to fire into his neighbor’s house, where his girlfriend ran after he assaulted her in the street.
The shooting continued Thursday night when at about 8:30 p.m. a suspect or suspects opened fire at “a group of individuals,” wounding two teenagers, and “fled the area on foot,” according to HPD.
“The suspect(s) are unknown at this time,” according to HPD.
Honolulu Emergency Medical Services officials said that at about 8:30 p.m. on Ala Akau Street, paramedics responded to a 15-year-old boy with gunshot wounds to the upper and lower body. They provided advanced life support and took the boy in serious condition to an emergency room.
About five minutes later a 19-year-old man with multiple gunshot wounds walked up to an EMS unit at 85-645 Farrington Highway, which is near the Waianae Small Boat Harbor and Ala Akau Street. Paramedics treated the patient and took him in serious condition to an emergency room.
EMS said the second teen was not injured at the Farrington Highway location where he was treated.
Logan said Friday whoever shot the two teens Thursday night remains at large and that the attempted murder investigation is ongoing.
