Posted at 7:30 a.m., Wednesday, May 16, 2001
Police find State Hospital escapee in Kahala
Advertiser Staff
Police early today found a Hawai'i State Hospital escapee in Kahala where he is suspected in several burglaries, and returned him to the state facility from which he had escaped twice. Police captured Leonard Moore at about 4 a.m. on Amau Street after a brief chase.
Moore, 35, escaped from the hospital April 7. It was Moore's second escape in less than two weeks. Yesterday, about 40 police officers, including the Specialized Services Division, cordned off a one-block area of Kolohana while a police helicopter hovered over the search area after reports of his sighting. Officers went door to door in the neighborhood and also searched the Kahala Mall shopping center. The search was called off at about 4:40 p.m. but police planned to beef up patrols in the neighborhood last night.
Moore is a suspect in several auto thefts and break-ins in the Kahala area.
Police believe that Moore was driving a stolen car that crashed into a wall Saturday on 'Aukai Street in Kahala and fled on foot to a construction site on Hakaka Place. An officer told investigators that he saw the man come out of the dark with a weapon in his hand. The officer fired two shots, but the bullets missed and hit a wall.
No one was injured in Saturday's incident.
