Pair arrested after standoff at Hilo storage facility

Police took a man and a woman into custody after an almost six-hour-long standoff Tuesday night at a self-storage facility on Kalanikoa Street in Hilo.

Officers received information that 36-year-old Jacob Leroy Kime of Hilo, who was wanted by police, was within the facility. According to police, officers attempted to contact Kime, but he verbally threatened them and locked and barricaded himself within a storage unit.

The department’s SWAT unit and crisis negotiators were brought in, and the storage facility was evacuated. Police closed Kalanikoa Street between Kuawa and Piilani streets.

Kime, who is from Oahu, is believed to have only been on this island for a couple weeks. Police say he was wanted for a series of violent offenses.

He had two outstanding arrest warrants. One was for a violent home-invasion robbery in Hilo on April 20 that left a 72-year-old female injured. The other was a residential burglary and auto theft in Hilo on April 21.

Despite police efforts to negotiate with Kime, he refused to exit the facility, police said.

Kime allegedly managed to breach a drywall barrier in the storage unit and entered two additional storage bays. Shortly before 11:30 p.m., the SWAT team entered the facility and took Kime into custody.

A woman acquaintance of Kime, 30-year-old Luwika Hauanio of Hilo, also was arrested. She on the property and driving a stolen vehicle, which police said was used to intentionally strike an officer’s taxpayer-subsidized police vehicle.

There were no reported injuries as a result of this incident.

Kime and Hauanio remain in custody pending further investigation. Police said search warrants are being drafted for the stolen vehicle Kime and Hauanio were operating, as well as the storage unit rented by Kime.