Several high-profile shootings, stabbings and fights last year highlighted the issue of gang violence on O'ahu and the need for authorities to track such activity.

Among them:

In November, an 18-year-old man was implicated in two gang-style shootings that left victims permanently paralyzed last year, as well as an assault in July in which the face of a victim was "permanently disfigured" with a broken beer bottle, according to court records.

Nicholas Nichols, a member of the Aliamanu Boys, was indicted Nov. 5 on multiple felony charges including attempted murder in the Aug. 11 armed invasion of a home on Hulaku'i Drive in Aliamanu.

In that case, Nichols allegedly shot Timothy Lapitan, 19, in the stomach, paralyzing him from the waist down.

Court records filed in a separate shooting case allege that Nichols was driving a car on Moanalua Freeway July 9 when a passenger in the car fired six gunshots into another vehicle, striking 16-year-old Roger Curioso and paralyzing him from the chest down.

Nichols has not been charged in that case. The alleged shooter, Joshua Gonda, 19, another reputed Aliamanu Boys member, has been indicted on charges including attempted murder. Gonda has pleaded not guilty.

According to a police affidavit filed in that case, the shooting occurred because the car in which Curioso was a passenger was owned by "a member of a rival gang called the Bracatas."

Nichols allegedly followed the car from Kalihi Valley onto the freeway, speeding up near Tripler Army Medical Center to bring his car alongside the one carrying Curioso. Gonda allegedly fired six shots from a handgun, with one bullet striking Curioso in the chest and lodging in his spine.

And on Nov. 15, more than 100 youths fought inside Pearlridge Center. The fight took place on a Saturday afternoon while the mall was packed with people. Six youths were taken to a hospital for treatment after the fight.