A man is dead after a police-involved shooting that occurred at about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday in Puna.
According to a Hawaii Police Department statement, officers responded to a Kahakai Boulevard home in Hawaiian Beaches subdivision after receiving a report of a 42-year-old man who had stabbed himself with a knife. Police say arriving officers were confronted by a man with rifle.
According to police, officers ordered the man to drop the rifle, but the man then pointed the weapon at the officers, who then fired their duty weapons at the man. Police say the man then retreated indoors and officers responded by setting up a safety perimeter and evacuating nearby residents.
Police say the incident was then treated as a barricaded subject with a firearm. The Special Response Team — the department’s SWAT unit —was called to the scene and a crisis negotiator attempted, unsuccessfully, to establish communication with the man.
Officers entered the home at about 7 p.m., police say, and the discovered the man inside, dead. No other occupants were in the house and no one else, including officers, was injured.
Police say four officers discharged their firearms, but it’s not yet known how many bullets hit the decedent. The officers’ individual time of law enforcement experience range from less than a year to 13 years.
The decedent’s name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
Police have opened terroristic threatening and unattended death investigations regarding the decedent. An autopsy has been ordered to determine the exact cause of death.
As is standard practice in any police-involved shootings, both criminal and administrative investigations have been opened. The Hilo Criminal Investigations Section will conduct the criminal investigation and the Office of Professional Standards, the department’s internal affairs unit, is conducting the administrative investigation.
Witnesses to the incident or those with information are asked to call the police non-emergency line at 935-3311 or contact Detective Jesse Kerr at 961-2379 or jesse.kerr@hawaiicounty.gov.
Those who prefer anonymity may call Crime Stoppers at 961-8300 and may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.