By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
This morning, the day after his son John was shot to death
in Wahiawa, Mike Keao, right, takes out his anger
on Glenn Ibert.

Man arrested in
Wahiawa shooting

The victim's father confronts
a homeless trio; neighbors
differ on the role of racism

By Craig Gima
Star-Bulletin

Police arrested a suspect this morning in connection with last night's shooting death of a 24-year-old Wahiawa resident.

Police said the suspect, who turned himself in at the Wahiawa police station, will be booked for second-degree murder.

Investigators and witnesses said the killing at the Schofield Sands Apartments stemmed from a neighborhood argument.

This morning, emotions flared up again as the father of the slain man confronted a trio of homeless people and other neighbors.

"You don't belong on the premises," said the father, identified by neighbors as Mike Keao. "What are you doing here?"

Neighbors identified the shooting victim as 24-year-old John Keao. Police said he had one visible gunshot wound to the stomach.

John Keao was taken to Wahiawa General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after the shooting.

There were conflicting reports from neighbors about whether the shooting had racial overtones.

"It seems like they got a problem with black folk," said Jesse White, a 50-year-old homeless black man who said he was attacked by the father and his two sons last night, and that sparked the fight.

"I like Hawaii, but the tension and the racism--I can't handle it anymore."

One resident defended the Keaos and said the homeless, and the residents inviting them to sleep in cars, cause the problem. She added that arguments break out between the two factions almost every week.

By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
Above, the car window of a neighborhood woman was
shattered as tempers and conflict erupted over John Keao's
death, which some neighbors say was caused
by racial and homeless problems.

Police, however, said race does not appear to be involved in the shooting.

The shooting happened at about 9:30 p.m. at the apartments, a group of about 12 duplexes, at 961 Wilikina Drive.

.Abandoned cars with homeless people sleeping inside are scattered throughout the poorly maintained complex.

Witnesses said John Keao's father started to bash car windows with a pipe after his son was shot. Several cars with the shattered windows could be seen near the flowers the father placed in memory of his son.

"The suspect was in a group of people. They were partying," said Homicide Lt. Allen Napoleon. "There was a lot of rubbish in the area. The victim and his family confronted them about the rubbish."

Napoleon said at least two shots were fired and information he has from witnesses indicates the victim and his family did not start the argument.

"I just heard the three guys with the pipes out here yelling and cussing all kinds of racial epithets, and they had pipes and they were swinging," said Glen Ibert, who was visiting friends in the complex and was about go to sleep inside a van.

"It scared me.

"I knew there was going to be trouble the way those kids was acting, and the man, too."

A neighbor, Lisa Naone, said John Keao cared about the complex and was trying to clean it up and get some tenants to move out.

Naone said the victim was a "nice kid."

Another neighbor agreed and said the victim was going to school to get his general education degree.

"He was trying to straighten his life around," he said.