Man killed, toddler hurt in Kane'ohe police chase
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
The suspects’ GMC pickup truck was riddled with bullets after a chase and shootout with police. The truck burst into flames shortly after stopping.
By Curtis Lum and Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writers
KANE'OHE — A driver of a pickup truck was killed and his passenger wounded yesterday afternoon in a gunbattle with police that began with a highway chase and ended with the bullet-riddled vehicle catching fire near Kane'ohe District Park.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
A 2-year-old boy who was tossed from the truck after it came to a halt at the park was taken to The Queen's Medical Center in good condition. A police officer was cut by flying glass.
A pickup truck involved in a chase and shootout with police rests precariously on a retaining wall off Kahekili Highway. The driver was killed in the shootout and a passenger was wounded.
The shootout sent bystanders along busy Kahekili Highway ducking for cover as dozens of rounds were exchanged between nine or 10 police officers and a gunman in the truck.
The incident closed Kahekili for several hours as investigators recovered bullet casings that were scattered on nearby neighborhood streets.
One witness said the pickup truck's driver pointed a shotgun at him on the busy Kane'ohe thoroughfare.
"I was really scared," said Jordan Souza, 19, a marine biology student at Hawai'i Pacific University. "He was pointing the gun in my direction and the next thing I knew, shots were fired. I thought he shot my car. Then he sped off and the cops were chasing him."
The dead man was identified as Arnold L. Willets, who police said had a long criminal record. Willets, 36, suffered gunshot wounds to the face, head and arm, and was pronounced dead at The Queen's Medical Center. Police opened fire on Willet's pickup truck after he allegedly fired a shotgun at police.
A passenger in Willet's pickup truck, identified only as a 22-year-old man, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was in guarded condition yesterday at Queen's. The 2-year-old boy suffered minor head injuries when he was thrown from the truck after the vehicle caught fire.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
A police officer was treated for cuts on his head when his SUV's windshield was shattered by gunfire. The shots came from Willet's pickup truck while it was being chased by police on Kahekili Highway, police said.
A GMC pickup truck rests on a retaining wall off Kahekili Highway near Kea‘ahala Road after a shootout with police.
Maj. Susan Dowsett, commander at the Kane'ohe district station, said the incident began about 1:15 p.m. when police tried to pull over a GMC pickup in Kane'ohe following a traffic accident on Kamehameha Highway near Kahalu'u.
The driver ignored police commands to stop in Kane'ohe. What followed was what Dowsett described as a "low-speed, nonconfrontational pursuit" that included portions of Likelike Highway and Kahekili Highway.
At one point during the chase along Kahekili Highway, someone in the truck fired a shotgun at police following behind. At first, officers didn't realize that shots were being fired at them, Dowsett said.
"They thought at first something was wrong with the truck, that maybe it was backfiring," she said.
The truck drove toward Honolulu on Likelike Highway, turned around at the tunnels and headed back to Kane'ohe. Back on Kahekili, it turned right onto Kea'ahala Road, made a U-turn and headed back toward Kahekili.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
But the truck failed to make a left turn at the intersection, running up a grass embankment in front of the district park, and spinning backward into a chainlink fence atop a 5-foot concrete wall bordering the park, Dowsett said.
Specialized Services Division officers secure the site at the intersection of Kahekili Highway and Kea‘ahala Road where a pickup truck came to a stop after a shootout with police. The truck’s driver was killed.
Police ordered the truck's occupants to get out; they refused. While the truck was dangling from the wall, a fire broke out, Dowsett said. Someone threw the toddler out of the truck, officials said.
Witnesses included workmen from Okada Trucking Co. Ltd., who were laying pipes nearby.
"We were hiding behind our equipment when it all started," said one man, who declined to give his name. "It sounded like fireworks going off. At one point you could hear the bullets clanging off the metal (baseball) backstop and see the bullets hitting the grass."
Haiku Village resident Jimmy Keama was in his back yard and saw the police cars following the truck.
"There must have been 100 shots or more," he said.
Willets had eight felony convictions and was on parole when yesterday's shooting occurred.
In 1995, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded no contest to kidnapping for his role in the 1992 shooting death of a 16-year-old Waipahu boy. Willets had earlier been convicted of firearms and auto theft violations.
Willets was ordered to serve a minimum six years in prison by the Hawai'i Paroling Authority. While he was incarcerated he was denied a request for a reduction in the minimum sentence and twice denied for parole, said Paroling Authority administrator Tommy Johnson.
But on June 20, 2002, Willets was granted parole, Johnson said. Because of his criminal record, Willets was placed on "intensive supervision."
Willets was out of prison for less than three months when he tested positive for methamphetamine, Johnson said. When Willets failed to report for a mandatory visit Sept. 23, a warrant was issued for his arrest, Johnson said.
Johnson said a grand jury warrant was issued for Willet's passenger last week.
Advertiser staff writers Catherine E. Toth, Vicki Viotti, Eloise Aguiar and Rod Ohira contributed to this report.
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