Posted on: Thursday, April 28, 2005

Probe launched into man's death during Tuesday arrest

Advertiser Staff

The death of a 41-year-old Makaha man who died early Tuesday during a police arrest was unfortunate, and an internal investigation has been launched, Honolulu Police Chief Boisse Correa said yesterday.

Police responded to a home on Makau Street after residents there called and said Ross Hose, who was visiting, had become unruly.

Resident Adeline Mercer said she was awakened sometime after 3 a.m. Tuesday by her 40-year-old son's cries for help. Mercer, 82, said Hose had come to her home to visit her son, who is Hose's cousin.

"He was trying to throw my TV out the window; he was giving my son a hard time," Mercer said.

She said she came down the stairs of her two-story home and peered into the carport to find a police officer asking the 300-pound Hose "to calm down."

Hose "was just running back and forth swinging his arms."

Mercer said Hose was not handcuffed and that she did not see the police officer hit him or spray him with pepper spray, though she later found what she believes is pepper spray residue on one of the carport walls.

"He (Hose) was just standing there at one point and fell backwards on the ground. My son and the cop were checking on him but he wasn't saying nothing to nobody," Mercer said.

Donnie Gates, a city Emergency Medical Services supervisor, said city paramedics actually went to the home on Makau Street three times.

"The first call from the police came in at 3:46 a.m., and by the time our Wai'anae unit got there, the situation appeared to be well under control and their services weren't needed," Gates said.

Wai'anae paramedics were called to the home a second time to find that police were planning to take Hose to the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Clinic for a mental health evaluation and again it appeared their services were not needed, Gates said.

"The Wai'anae unit was called back a third time, at 5:30 a.m., and arrived to find the patient (Hose) in extremely critical condition," Gates said. "He was taken to the Wai'anae Comprehensive Health Center where he was pronounced (dead)."

Mercer said that Hose had begun visiting her son frequently but had never behaved the way he did Tuesday morning.

"He always called me 'Auntie' and was polite," Mercer said.

When she saw Hose in her carport and her garage before he fell to the ground, he appeared to be "really off, way off," Mercer said.

"I never seen him like that before — never," Mercer said.

She said Hose had four children, the youngest being 6 years old, and was separated from his wife.

"I know he had just gotten himself a job. Someone offered him a construction job, and he was making good money," Mercer said.

Correa declined to discuss the internal police investigation because it is ongoing.

Court records show that Hose was convicted between 1983 and 1995 for a variety of offenses including, assault, car theft, burglary and selling illegal drugs.