Patrol officer shoots suspect in Hilo

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — A patrol officer responding to a theft report in downtown Hilo yesterday shot the driver of a car that sped toward him, a Big Island police official said.

It's the fourth shooting by a Big Island police officer on duty in less than a year.

The 28-year-old suspect, shot in the chest, was reported in serious but stable condition at the Hilo Medical Center. He has not been charged, but another man in the car, Justine Aoki, 20, of Hilo, was charged with fourth-degree attempted theft. His bail on the charge was set at $250. However, he was being held in the Hilo police cellblock without bail for revocation of supervised release in an unrelated case. Aoki will be arraigned today in District Court.

Assistant Chief Wendell Paiva said the 28-year-old man was asleep in the back of a blue 1987 Honda four-door sedan parked across the street from the Shipman Street Laundromat at 3:12 a.m. when police responded to a report of a theft under way at the business. When police arrived, the man forced Aoki out of the driver's seat and took control of the car, he said. Witnesses told police the driver "started the car, rapidly reversed it and then put the vehicle in forward gear and sped toward a patrol officer," Paiva said.

The officer, a 20-year police veteran, fired a single shot at the driver, hitting the man in the upper left chest near his neck.

Police have not released the officer's name. The officer has been placed on administrative leave, standard department procedure in a police shooting.

Shipman Street was cordoned off between Keawe Street and Kamehameha Avenue for most of the day while police gathered evidence.

Big Island on-duty police officers were involved in three other recent shootings:

• Keola Nathen Kanae, 19, was shot June 14 after he and Shaun "Mika" Thompson were caught in an armed carjacking in a Puna subdivision. Thompson fatally shot himself at the scene. Kanae was convicted of the carjacking in November.
• Paul Sandy of Hawaiian Paradise Park was shot in the chest Sept. 23 after allegedly threatening a police officer with a pair of scissors. Sandy already had seriously injured himself with the scissors when he threatened the officer, police said.
• Santiago Vasquez, 39, of Leilani Estates, was killed Dec. 22 when a police officer shot him during a knife attack. Vasquez was shot as he assaulted another man who broke into his home.