POLICE, EMERGENCIES

By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
A distraught young man had to be held back by others at a shooting
scene across from the Kapalama Post Office, where two people were
shot, one fatally. He said one of the victims was his cousin. He later
broke away and stormed off down the street.

2 men shot, one
fatally at Kapalama
party site

Other holiday mayhem:
59 hurt by fireworks, one by a
'rocket' blast, and 13
respiratory cases

By Gordon Pang and
Jaymes K. Song
Star-Bulletin

POLICE arrested three men this morning after a shooting in Kapalama last night that left one man dead and another in critical condition.

The shooting, in front of the R&P Music Store at Wolter Lane and North King Street, was the most serious of several New Year's incidents to which police responded.

In Waialua, a 25-year-old man was critically injured by shrapnel when a fiberglass pipe with fireworks exploded.

Hospitals reported 59 people injured by fireworks and at least 13 cases of people who came to emergency rooms with respiratory problems.

The Honolulu Fire Department said it responded to 44 fireworks-related calls on New Year's Eve -- an increase of 450 percent from last year. In addition, the fire deparment responded to 39 calls from midnight to 8 a.m. today.

Police are investigating whether the Kapalama shooting was gang-related. Detectives questioned at least a dozen people before arresting an 18-year-old man and two 23-year-old men on suspicion of second-degree murder and attempted murder.

Witnesses said a group of men approached another group partying along Wolter Lane and challenged them to a fistfight at about 10 p.m.

Police were told one man pulled out a pistol and shot a 24-year-old man in the stomach and the 22-year-old in the head. The younger man died of his injuries at Queen's Hospital.

Julio Quiocho, a Wolter Lane resident, said he heard a commotion and ran outside to see a young man in his 20s, whom he knows, staggering on the sidewalk with an injury to his side. "He said:, 'I got shot, I'm not kidding,' " Quiocho said. "That's when I called 911."

By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
Police officers look over the shooting scene .

Quiocho said he saw the victim and others only hours earlier celebrating the new year on the street. "They were just partying over here, just like everybody else."

A 20-year-old man was also arrested a block away on Long Lane at 12:20 this morning for reckless endangering after he fired several rounds from his shotgun near several homes.

Police were investigating whether it is connected to the fatal shooting.

Injured by fireworks 'rocket'

A man playing with rocket-like fireworks on Akule Street was hit by shrapnel in the back of his head when, instead of shooting into the sky, the mortar shell exploded in a fiberglass pipe, police said.

According to the police report, the man was about five feet away from the explosion and was thrown another five feet and knocked unconscious by the blast.

Emergency Medical Services Director Robin McCulloch said the man went into cardiac arrest but was revived by paramedics. He was sent to Wahiawa General Hospital, and then transferred to Queen's Hospital.

More emergencies this time

EMS officials fielded slightly more calls this year than in the prior New Year's.

During the 24-hour period that ended at midnight, 164 calls were taken, McCulloch said. Last year, there were 152 reported incidents.

The Fire Department reported receiving 118 calls during the same period, 44 of which were fireworks-related.

Of those calls, seven involved structure fires, seven were brush fires and 18 were Dumpster fires. Forty people requested medical attention, said fire Capt. Richard Soo.

Four of the structure fires were believed to have been caused by illegal aerial fireworks.

A house on Martha Street in Kapahulu sustained $5,000 in damages. Two back-to-back homes in Waipio Gentry, one on Kumepala Street and other on Kawelo Street, sustained $400 and $4,000 in damage, respectively from a fire.

Island Fender, on 440 Kamani St. in Kakaako, sustained about $4,000 in damage.

Last year, there were 77 alarms received on New Year's Eve, eight of them fireworks related.

Deputy Fire Chief John Clark said rain earlier in the week helped prevent major brush fires.