Barricaded suspect pointed gun at police before being shot, chief says

Honolulu Police Chief Joe Logan said a suspect killed after an hours-long standoff in Waikiki left the apartment where he was barricaded and pointed a gun at officers before police shot him about 4:30 a.m. Friday.

The man, whose identity is being determined by the medical examiner’s office, according to Logan, is a suspect in three bank robberies earlier this month on the Windward side of Oahu and in Pearl City, he said Friday during a news conference at the medical examiner’s office headquarters.

Officers with the Honolulu Police Department’s Special Services Division investigating the robberies received information about the suspect’s whereabouts Thursday night and saw a man matching the suspect’s description enter a Waikiki apartment around 8 p.m., Logan said.

Officials evacuated residents and closed the area of ​​Liliuokalani Avenue between Cleghorn Street and Ala Wai Boulevard.

Crisis negotiators made contact with the suspect, who was in a condominium that did not belong to him, Logan said. No other people were in the building at the time.

The suspect “refused to communicate,” he said.

Officers flew a surveillance drone to the unit and confirmed the man was armed when he pointed a small firearm resembling a Glock 17 at the drone, Logan said.

Police later used pepper spray and CS gas near the apartment where the suspect had barricaded himself, Logan said. He exited the apartment and pointed his gun at four special forces officers, who fired their weapons, killing him.

A neighbor, Danielle Bidondo, who lives on Cleghorn Street, said she heard gunshots early Friday.

“It was scary,” she said as she cleaned her porch Friday morning. “First a gunshot, and I thought, is that a gunshot? Then another one.”

Logan said the officers involved were not wearing body cameras because they were part of a special unit that is not required to use such devices. He said the department is currently reviewing additional video footage from door cameras in nearby apartments.

The officers involved in the shooting have been offered administrative leave, but they have not yet taken it because they are still busy preparing reports, he said.

This is the third fatal police-involved shooting on Oahu this year. Officers shot and killed Sidney Tafokitau on January 1 after an island-wide manhunt. Tafokitau shot and wounded two officers. On January 25, officers shot and killed Brandan Maroney in Makaha as he walked down the middle of Farrington Highway with a knife in his hand. No body cameras or other video footage have been released from either incident.