“Shoot me, shoot me,” Rodney Laulusa shouted at four police officers in a semicircle with their guns aimed at him as he wielded two large knives at the Palolo Valley Housing complex.
One witness heard an officer trying to get Laulusa to drop the knives, saying: “Put down the knives and then we’ll shoot you.”
Instead, Laulusa, 30, moved toward the officers . . . BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
A flurry of gunshots erupted. Laulusa crumpled to the ground as the rain fell on him. Three officers fired a total of 20 shots, hitting Laulusa 15 times.
A hostile crowd fired back at the officers, yelling: "Why did you have to shoot him? You treat us like animals! Murderers! Watch your backs. We'll get you."
Was deadly force justified? Or excessive? The prosecutor's office has ruled the shooting justified. An administrative investigation and review into whether excessive force was used is continuing. But the question has residents in the Palolo Valley upset and sad months after the shooting.
"It's a shoot-to-kill policy
as far as I'm concerned."
--Palolo Valley resident
"It was wrong, definitely wrong," said one Palolo Valley Homes resident who asked not to be identified. "That was somebody's son, and my two sons will never forget what happened. It'll never be forgotten here."Laulusa was one of four men shot this year by Honolulu police officers, leaving three dead and one injured. A fifth man was shot at by officers but was not hit.
The four shootings in the first half of 1998 are more than in any year for at least three decades. Police and crime experts say drugs and alcohol are becoming more prevalent in the shootings.
"I don't think having one more shooting than the previous years is a trend," said Police Chief Lee Donohue. "I think what we're concerned about is what is causing the violence . . . Throughout the United States there's an epidemic of methamphetamines."
"It's something we pray
that we never have to do."
--Police officer
According to the department, drugs or alcohol are alleged to have been involved in all four cases. However, Laulusa's blood alcohol level was determined to be only 0.04 -- half of Hawaii's limit for being considered driving drunk.Donohue stressed that officers are trained to "stop the threat."
Some people disagree.
"It's a shoot-to-kill policy as far as I'm concerned," said Palolo Valley resident Julia Matsui-Estrella, who stood less than 10 feet from Laulusa when he was gunned down.
"We're trained for it, but it's something we pray that we never have to do," said Sgt. Frank Fujii of the department's peer counseling team. "The public doesn't realize it, but we hate using deadly force. We're not a bunch of trigger-happy people who want to shoot people -- that's the last thing we want to do."
Prosecutors have ruled three of the four shootings justifiable, including Laulusa's:
Benedict "Tiki" Manupule, 18, was killed New Year's Day in Mayor Wright Housing after firing at off-duty police officer Tenari Maafala. Manupule's blood-alcohol content was estimated to be 0.25, three times the drunken-driving limit in Hawaii.
Maafala on Aug. 17 was given the department's highest award.
"It's always a lose-lose situation," said City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle. "Nobody likes to see them. Nobody likes to see the gun fired. It's a last resort kind of thing."
He said the one of the most difficult aspects of investigating such shootings has been weighing the two sides.
"Police view it from one circumstance, and the other side is the people who know the person who has been shot, and they only view it in one way," he said. "You never get either to agree."
Carlisle's office collects statements and compares them with physical evidence to determine what happened.
"My personal views on police shootings is that it's difficult to know exactly what happened," said David Johnson, a University of Hawaii criminology professor. "There's only a few people there, a few eyewitnesses. Its basically a he-said, she-said story. Or only just a he-said story, if a person dies."
Carlisle said he relies heavily on the physical evidence when there is only the suspect and the officer in a remote area with no other witnesses -- such as in the Barques case.
"The question whether or not to charge has nothing to do you (with) whether you agree with the police," he said. "It has to do with whether or not you can prove a criminal offense beyond a reasonable doubt."
But proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt may be difficult. According to police records dating to 1987, no officer involved in a shooting has ever been declared unjustified by the prosecutor's office.
"If you say we had two or three shootings (in previous years) and this year we had four, does that mean we're shooting more?" Donohue said. "I don't think so. I don't know. I can't speculate. I hope not. But there's a concern out there, and I'm concerned about the safety of the officers and the public."
The community, family members and attorneys have accused the department of everything from excessive force to discrimination.
"Each and every one of the recent shootings could have been avoided and resolved without harm to anyone if the police tactics were changed and if their perception of the circumstances was not so fearful," said attorney Paul Saccoccio, who represents Barques. "Their mission is not vengeance, but to protect the people, including the victims of the shootings."
Palolo Valley Housing residents Mailei Loa and Ese Faumui said they have no complaints about the veteran officers who have been patrolling the area for a long time and treat the residents with respect. It's the newer officers that they have problems with.
"You get treated the way you treat people," Faumui said. "And they have attitudes. They come around here acting like they're God."
Lt. Gregory Poole, of the HPD's Internal Affairs, which investigates shooting cases, said: "What's underlying in the current cases is, the officer gave them the opportunity to desist and they didn't do it."
Poole said if the men thought the officer was trespassing or wrongly making a stop, they should comply with the officer and then take the case to court afterward.
"At least he would be here today," he said.
Excessive force
A Honolulu Star-Bulletin/NBC Hawaii News poll last month showed support for the department, with 83 percent of the people questioned rating the department fair to excellent. Some 35 percent of the respondents felt the four shootings were all justified, and 29 percent said the shootings were justified most of the time. Only 3 percent said the shootings were never justified, and 8 percent were undecided.Voters contacted by the Star-Bulletin said the biggest concern they had with the shootings was the number of shots fired at Laulusa.
"You wonder why it takes 20 shots to bring someone down," said Makiki resident and poll respondent Jim Brady. "It's always a judgment call, but the 20 shots raised my questions."
A'o Pohakuku Rodenhurst, president and founder of the Coalition of Peoples Against Police Brutality, said 20 shots is "totally unacceptable."
"Even if he had a gun that would be too much . . . but he had knives," she said.
Matsui-Estrella along with six other witnesses told prosecutors the officers continued to shoot while Laulusa was on the ground. Four other witnesses said he was on his knees. Only one witness said Laulusa was not on the ground.
Carlisle said a key element to determining if the force used is excessive is how long the force is employed. He gave the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles as a clear example of excessive force. Carlisle said the officers didn't stop striking King although he was down and wasn't moving.
"They had the opportunity to stop," he said. "If the shooting lasts for only a few seconds, then that's a different circumstance than blasting for a while, then pausing and shooting some more. If there was a pause and a chance of regrouping, and then they continue with deadly force when deadly force is no longer required -- that's clearly incorrect."
National trends
According to deadly force and crime experts, police killings have declined in the United States since the 1960s because of stricter laws and procedures. However, experts acknowledge more cases recently involving suspects who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol or who are mentally unstable."One of the problems that police on the mainland are facing is deinstitutionalization, which has put an awful lot of emotionally disturbed people on the street," said James Fyfe, a criminology professor and deadly force expert at Temple University. "'We got you surrounded, you better come out before its gets worse,' that works fine with offenders that are rational. But people who are drunk, under the influence of drugs or emotionally disturbed are irrational and that doesn't work. What it generally does, it causes the situation to escalate."
Donohue said drug use has gone up since he joined the department in 1964 because of the population growth on Oahu and the increased availability of drugs.
"Back then they had speed and methamphetamines, but I think the culture has changed. I think there are more people using," Donohue said. "That's because there are more people on this island. The problems are the same, except now there's more people."
When Donohue joined the force, it had 400 officers. Now it has 1,800.
"We had shootings back then too," he said. "We had police officers killed in my first year. It was dangerous then. It's dangerous now."
Suicide by cop
According to a New York Times report, "experts believe an estimated 10 percent of the roughly 600 fatal police shootings that occur in the nation in an average year are provoked by people actively seeking to die.""Suicide by cop" is a practice in which someone lures law enforcement into shooting them.
Evidence found in the Laulusa case suggests he committed "suicide by cop," the prosecutor's office said. However, they did not confirm it as his motive. Shortly before the shooting, Laulusa called 911 and told dispatchers of a man who was drunk with a knife and throwing beers at cars. He also urged officers, "Come on, come on."
Experts and police believe there could be numerous reasons why a person might want to commit suicide by being shot by police officer: being too scared to commit suicide on their own, dying a highly publicized death or hoping to gain compensation from the city.
"The most common theory is that if you're shot by an officer, you're the victim and the officer is the perpetrator," Deirdre Anglin, a University of Southern California professor, told the New York Times. "Suicide is still socially taboo. This way, you're not actually killing yourself."
Donohue wouldn't comment on "suicide by cop," other than to say: "It happens."
Streets more dangerous?
According to the FBI, 64 law enforcement officers across the country were slain in the line of duty in 1997. That is up 14 percent from 1996, when 56 officers were killed.Handguns were used in 43 of the slayings. Rifles were used in 12 officer killings, shotguns in six. Two officers were stabbed and one died after being struck by another person. The FBI reported 27 of the officers were wearing body armor when they were killed. A total of 60 officers were accidentally killed while on duty as well.
"We face guys who have no rules," said Sgt. Fujii. "They're not supposed to be carrying guns in the first place. We have rigid guidelines, then we face public scrutiny, and not the bad guys.
"We need to make life-or-death decisions in split seconds," he said. "The people critiquing have minutes, days, months or years. So, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. But if you let them go, they'll hurt a person."
Reporting By Jaymes K. Song
Graphics By David Swann
Star-Bulletin
