Updated at 5:55 p.m., Thursday, June 21, 2007
Kapolei Village standoff ends with man's death
Advertiser Staff
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EMS spokesman Bryan Cheplic said the man was pronounced dead at 4:50 p.m.
Police said the man was found upstairs, with a single self-inflicted gunshot wound from a pistol.
Police heard a shot at 3:45 p.m., and sent a police robot into the home, said Capt. Alan Bluemke with the police Specialized Services Division.
Officers followed some time later, and found the man at 4:40 p.m., Bluemke said.
Earlier in the afternoon, five homes were evacuated as police responded to the Aukahi Street home after the 52-year-old man had barricaded himself inside.
Both ends of Aukahi Street, at Halana and Mamaka streets, were closed off, and police focused on a house in the 91-1000 block of Aukahi Street.
The evacuated homes are on Aukahi Street.
A Honolulu Police Department crisis negotiation team was part of the response, and a National Guard armored vehicle arrived at HPD's command center at about 1:15 p.m.
Earlier, police said they believed the man was armed.
"The reason we are here is that we have reason to believe there are firearms in the house and we need to assure that the community is safe," said Capt. Frank Fujii, HPD spokesman.
The incident began about 8:40 a.m., when police responded to a call from a woman who said her husband was distraught, Fujii said. The barricaded man later phoned his wife to say he would not be coming out of the house and that he wanted police to leave, Fujii said.
Just before noon, a woman who apparently is an Aukahi Street resident said her teenage daughter initially was in the house during the incident, but was allowed to leave the home.
The woman, who declined to give her name and was wearing an Army uniform, reunited with her daughter and left the scene with her.
About 20 officers with the department's Specialized Services Division responded, wearing ballistic shields and body armor.
HPD set up a command post truck at the intersection of Aukahi and Mamaka streets. The HPD bomb truck also was at the scene, moving from Mamaka to Aukahi Street near the location at noon.
A woman visiting at a nearby home on Aukahi Street said police came to the door this morning and told occupants to stay indoors because officers were having difficulty serving a domestic abuse warrant. The woman declined to be identified.
Ed Caldwell, who lives on Mamaka Street down the street from the home, was sitting, with a soft drink in hand, on a white rocking chair under a palm tree in his yard as the incident unfolded.
"I just decided I was going to sit here in the shade and watch what's going on," Caldwell said. "I talked to one of the officers down there earlier. He said there's a man boarded up in a room with weapons and that's why they came."
He said he does not know who lives in the home.
A person being sought by police was believed to be in the home and indicated earlier this morning that he may try to hurt himself, police said.
Shortly after 10 a.m., the incident was being described as a "barricade situation." Within about 10 minutes, however, police suspected there may be others in the home who were not being allowed to leave, creating a "hostage situation."
Police then believed there was just one individual in the house and began describing it again as a barricade situation.
See Google Maps for the site of the BARRICADE.
