Cop had reason
By Crystal Kua
to shoot, officials rule
Star-BulletinCity prosecutors have cleared a former Honolulu police officer of wrongdoing in a 1996 incident in which he shot at a suspect in Waianae.
Gregory Cantrell, who is no longer with the department, was on duty on June 2, 1996, when he fired 14 rounds at a suspected car thief who was fleeing in a car and struck the officer, prosecutors said.
"The force used by officer Cantrell was justified," Deputy Prosecutor Lawrence Grean, who supervises the screening and intake of cases, said.
Cantrell and another officer were on the Waianae Valley Road in the late afternoon when they came upon a car, driven by convicted felon Benjamin Pale, the subject of an all-points bulletin, Deputy Prosecutor Lynne Goto said.
After confirming that the license plates on the car did not match the car, the officers tried to get Pale to pull over by trying to box him in with their cars.
Pale tried to flee, driving into oncoming traffic and engaging in a "pushing match" with Cantrell's car on the road.
They eventually pulled off onto a dirt shoulder and Cantrell got out of the passenger side of his car which was against Pale's car. Two passengers also jumped out of Pale's car.
"Pale reverses into (a) chain-link fence, then revs the engine, burning rubber," Goto said.
Cantrell, who still had his gun holstered, ordered Pale to turn off the engine, Goto said.
Pale then accelerated toward Cantrell and, according to Cantrell and witnesses, apparently struck the officer, injuring him, Goto said.
"(Cantrell) unholsters his gun and fires," Goto said.
Pale was not struck by the bullets, but he was injured in a scuffle with another officer trying to arrest him, Goto said.
Pale was charged with two counts of second-degree criminal property damage stemming from the incident. He was eventually sentenced to prison for these charges and previous convictions of automobile theft, Goto said.
Grean said the case was investigated by the Police Department's Internal Affairs Division.
