A 20-year-old Kalihi man who suffered a gunshot wound to the head Sunday night at Ala Moana Center has died.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office identified him Thursday as Steve Feliciano, who was affectionately known to friends and family as “Stevie.”
An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment Thursday charging the man wanted in connection with the Christmas Day shooting with murder.
Police reclassified the case to second-degree murder and were still looking for 20-year-old murder suspect Dae Han Moon on Thursday in connection with Feliciano’s death.
Deputy Prosecutor Chasid Sapolu told state Circuit Judge Colette Garibaldi on Thursday that doctors at the Queen’s Medical Center declared Feliciano dead at
5 p.m. Wednesday.
Police and the prosecutor said Feliciano and some friends went to a parking structure at Ala Moana Center at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday to get some marijuana from another person. Before they could pick up the marijuana, Moon and his friends showed up in a vehicle. Sapolu said one of Moon’s friends started a fight with Feliciano and that others joined in.
“After the fight subsided (Moon) returned to his car, retrieved a firearm, pointed it and struck the victim once on the head with the firearm and pointed it and fired a shot into the back of the victim’s head,” Sapolu said.
Police said the shooting happened on the fifth floor of the center’s Ewa wing parking structure.
At the time of the shooting, Moon was free on $30,000 bail for auto theft and firearm possession in connection with a Dec. 5 incident.
Homicide Lt. Phillip Lavarias said Thursday that officers from the Honolulu Police Department’s Crime Reduction Unit are on a manhunt for Moon. “A number of tips have come in. We’re following up on those tips. We’re searching everywhere for this individual.”
Lavarias declined to say what areas were the focus of their search efforts.
“We need the public’s help on this. We appreciate any assistance that the public can give us,” he said. Moon is considered armed and dangerous. Lavarias advised the public not to approach him and immediately call 911, if spotted.
In the ongoing investigation, police have learned two other male suspects allegedly threatened a witness to the shooting. Police arrested one of the two men, 21, at his home in the Nuuanu-Punchbowl area Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of hindering prosecution.
Lavarias said that anyone who assists Moon in any capacity will be arrested for hindering prosecution.
Feliciano, a 2015 Moanalua High School graduate, was a receiver on the school’s football team.
His former coach, Jason Cauley, said he had been unresponsive on life support.
Grief-stricken, Feliciano’s sister Carina Feliciano wrote on her Facebook page that she is still in shock over her brother’s death. “My heart hurts,” she wrote. “I miss your handsome smile. I miss the kisses on my cheeks. I miss how you get excited to see your nieces and nephew. I still can’t believe.”
Co-workers at Doraku Sushi, where Feliciano worked, are taking up a collection to give to his family.
“He was a really nice kid,” said his boss, Rollie Sakura, manager at Dorako’s Kakaako location, where he worked as a busboy and host. “He was very full of energy and had a positive attitude he would bring to work. He was always smiling.”
Feliciano’s sister Diana
Feliciano has set up an account for funeral expenses at gofundme.com/stevies-
funeral.
The fund raised more than $3,000 in five hours Thursday.
———
Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporter Leila Fujimori contributed to this report.