Honolulu police must provide more information about the fatal shooting of an erratic motorist on a busy Waikiki street. The fact that this is the second shooting by police under similar circumstances in less than two years adds to the urgency of public disclosure.
Such an examination should extend not only to the circumstances surrounding this incident but also to whether HPDneeds to refine the training it provides to help officers deal with people who are resisting arrest, and may be mentally ill or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The full scope of policies related to how police deal with such offenders should be reviewed.
At this point, we know far more about the 52-year-old Manoa man who died than we do about the police officer who killed him. This is where HPD’s strict secrecy again does a disservice to the public.
The officer, a six-year veteran of the department, may well have acted appropriately, as the department has indicated during its initial investigation. However, absent any information about the officer’s employment history or disciplinary record, it’s impossible for the public to ascertain whether there were any gaps in training or any other red flags.
The public is left to trust HPD’s internal investigation for a thorough and fair probe into the matter. The results of that investigation, underway now while the officer is on paid administrative leave, as is standard after any police shooting, should also be fully publicized once the results are in.
The motorist, who lived with his mother in Manoa, had no record of criminal convictions but was arrested in October for allegedly driving under the influence by mental impairment and refusing to submit to a breath, blood and urine test. Court proceedings were suspended pending a psychiatric evaluation to gauge his fitness for trial.
The fatal incident played out Wednesday night on Kuhio Avenue. Police say the officer fired through the motorist’s open driver’s side window after the motorist tried to flee a fender-bender he had caused. The officer fired five times, hitting the motorist multiple times in the torso; the car continued to travel about two blocks before striking a tree so hard that the small car’s engine block was dislodged.
Police said the officer made a split-second judgment in the interest of public safety, given that the motorist was driving dangerously in his attempt to get away, and almost hit the officer and other pedestrians; HPD has opened a first-degree attempted murder case against the driver, even though he’s dead.
"Do we let the driver go on and strike pedestrians, or do we try to stop the threat? In this case he decided to stop the threat," Deputy Chief Dave Kajihiro said.
The shooting itself posed a threat to pedestrians and others on the street, as did the car as it careened out of control for two blocks after the man was shot.
The incident calls to mind the January 2013 fatal shooting by Honolulu police of a drunken 22-year-old U.S. soldier who also resisted arrest; he was shot after ramming patrol cars with his pickup truck after police surrounded him on Ala Wai Boulevard.
We hope that HPDwill use this latest case to look more broadly at ways to improve its own officer training programs, and to partner with other agencies to reduce the scourge of drunken driving and to improve options for the mentally ill. The question is not only whether the police needed to use deadly force in this case, but how we as a community can keep this from happening again.
