Newswatch
Stella Zoeller Jensen, 39, was pronounced dead at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center following the 7:25 p.m. drive-by shooting in front of Yuen Grocery on the mauka side of Farrington Highway in Nanakuli.
"I was in my bedroom and I heard four shots -- bang, bang, bang, bang -- real fast and then another shot later," said Leilani Naone, who lives at the corner of Haleakala Avenue, less than 100 yards from the store.
"I looked out the window and all I saw was dust but I could hear the cars screeching," she added.
Jensen was a passenger in a dark green 1995 Ford Mustang driven by a 28-year-old man who has prior arrests for firearm offenses.
A witness told police that Jensen had been using a pay phone in front of the store near the road and was getting back into the Mustang when shots were fired from a passing maroon-colored car headed toward Waianae.
She jumped in and the Mustang took off in the opposite direction and turned left onto Haleakala Avenue. The driver stopped at the third house and asked the residents to call 911.
Jensen, mother of two adult daughters, was shot in the head, behind her right ear. In all, five shots were fired, police said.
Her companion identified the shooter by name to police.
Those hopes, shared by her grandparents, were shattered Tuesday night when the compact car she was driving smashed into a kamani nut tree just minutes from her Hauula home. Avea, the lone occupant, died at the scene of multiple injuries.
Speed -- responsible for more than a third of all traffic fatalities on Oahu roads last year -- was a likely factor, traffic investigators said.
Avea's death is the sixth traffic fatality on Oahu this year, compared with two at the same time last year.
Yesterday, classmates who learned of Avea's death took the news hard."I just saw her yesterday," said a stunned Luana Ogawa, who had known Avea since the seventh grade. "She was a sweet, sweet person."
Avea had her life together and was on track to graduate in June, said Kahuku Principal Lea Albert.
"She had dreams, plans, goals and was very committed to them."
But that won't be the end of it for another year. It's not just that George Rainey is president, and Terri publicity chairman, of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Coalition, a multiethnic combination of private citizens who kept the celebration going after the state stopped its funding in 1995.
They and other coalition members want to implement the words of one of the authors of the federal legislation establishing the holiday, who said it should be "a day on, not a day off." The national holiday committee in Atlanta suggests going beyond celebrations and into service projects, from tutoring adults and children to renovating playgrounds or public housing to fighting crime through participation in neighborhood watch patrols.
"What really affects me is the unselfishness Dr. King brought. What I try to do every day is be unselfish, it is the hardest thing to do," said George Rainey.
Terri Rainey said: "The coalition dues are that you come out and DO something," and they welcome new recruits. The Raineys are among the best-known leaders of the black community in Hawaii because of their participation as volunteers in a variety of high-profile projects. She is administrative assistant in the Outrigger Hotels resort management department. He has his own computer security consultant and web page design business. They have lived in Hawaii for eight years.
The attendant told police the suspect entered Hiram's Chevron at 140 South School St. just after 9 p.m., jumped over the counter and punched him in the face and head. The masked man also held pliers wrapped in a blue handkerchief to the back of the attendant's head and demanded money.
He allegedly picked up the register and threw it to the ground, causing money to spill out. He grabbed the cash and fled.
The suspect is described as about 20 years old, 5-foot-6, 180 pounds and husky. The attendant did not sustain any visible injuries and refused treatment.
Mario Mendosa Magdaleno, 19, also known as Armando Rodrigues, and his wife, Sharon Pointer, 35, also known as Sharon Magdaleno, were arrested at the airport Monday when they were found with 166.4 grams of methamphetamines and 72.4 grams of cocaine, police said.
Searches at their home and vehicles in Kealakekua over the next two days led to additional charges. Both are being held in lieu of $17,025 bail.
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