"I saw it out of the corner of my eye," Mary Yeager said of the falling body.

While looking at a pair of brown slippers near a pool of blood in the intersection, Russ Yeager noted, "It kind of takes the wind out of your sails."

Police homicide investigators today were awaiting autopsy results before pursuing possible charges against a 17-year-old youth arrested in the fatal fall of an off-duty police officer from a freeway viaduct railing near the airport yesterday.

The officer allegedly was either thrown or shoved over a freeway viaduct railing during a confrontation with the juvenile.

Arthur Miller, a 19-year Honolulu Police Department veteran recently promoted to the rank of sergeant, was pronounced dead at Queen's Hospital at 5:12 p.m., about 40 minutes after the incident on the H-1 Freeway's airport viaduct was reported.

The suspect, whose attempt to flee the scene in his car was thwarted by witnesses, was being held at the Alder Street juvenile detention facility this morning.

Police have statements from at least five people who witnessed a physical confrontation between Miller and the youth, homicide Detective Anderson Hee said.

The statements indicate Miller's 33-foot fall from the railing into the intersection of Nimitz Highway and Aolele Street was "deliberately" caused, Hee noted.

The confrontation may have resulted from a traffic incident, investigators said, although police dispatch was not notified of the stop. "The two cars pulled over and there was a problem," Hee said.

The confrontation took place at Miller's car. There is no indication that Miller and the boy knew each other, said Deputy Chief Lee Donohue.

After the fracas, the youth drove off but witnesses to the altercation managed to block him with their vehicles several hundred yards up the freeway, said Donohue.

If the boy is charged, it will be as a juvenile, but prosecutors could petition Family Court to waive its jurisdiction in the case.

Miller, 50, was assigned to the East Honolulu District as a supervising patrol sergeant in the Hawaii Kai area.

A tall man with a slim build, Miller is remembered by his peers as a quiet, private individual who was overcoming the emotional stress of a recent divorce. "He was a working police officer, very caring," said Detective Nick Cambra, who was promoted in June with Miller.

Donohue remembered Miller as "very low-key, he loved his job. He was always willing to help."

Miller is survived by his mother, Elaine, of Kaimuki, and two sisters.