Police find truck in Feb. 14 hit-run

By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer

Honolulu police have recovered a truck that they say was used in a fatal hit-and-run on the Leeward Coast last month.

The victim of the Feb. 14 hit-and-run was 56-year-old Gloria Brooks, an avid runner who worked for a government contractor.

The truck is being tested for evidence, including blood and tissue, police said. No information was released about when or where the truck was found. No arrests have been made and the case remains under investigation.

"We have the truck" was all that Capt. Frank Fujii, Honolulu Police Department spokesman, would say yesterday.

Brooks was running at 3:31 a.m. near the Wai'anae Comprehensive Health Center in Ma'ili on the mauka side of Farrington Highway when a white flatbed truck traveling toward Wai'anae went off the road and hit her from behind, police said.

Brooks died at the scene.

Witnesses told police they heard a noise, saw the driver speed away, and found the victim lying on the shoulder of the road. The truck's mirror was found at the scene. Police said Brooks was running on the sidewalk.

For the past five years Brooks worked for AMSEC, a government contractor that provides the Navy with technicians and logistical support and analysis. She was recently promoted to senior administrator, her supervisor, Dick Porter said. She was named the employee of the year in 2000 and 2004.

Brooks had been participating in local races, including marathons, for years.

She most recently had run in the Honolulu Marathon with a time of 5:20:28. In 2002, she placed first in the women's 50-59 age category of the fifth annual International Marathon on the Big Island.

Brooks has a son serving in the Army who is stationed in Kuwait.

Reach Peter Boylan at 535-8110 or pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.