Police recover officer's handgun
The arrest of the driver of a stolen car nets the missing pistol, bullets and baton
A Honolulu police officer whose gun was found a day after being taken from his car at a residential driveway did not break any department rules, according to police.
Police recovered the officer's gun belt Tuesday afternoon in Makakilo while arresting 38-year-old Garret Carreira for driving a car that had been stolen in a burglary. No charges have yet been filed against Carreira, who has 11 prior felony convictions.
The officer's complete gun belt, with a 9-mm handgun, ammunition, handcuffs, a baton and pepper spray, was "properly secured" when it was reported stolen from inside the officer's personal car on Monday, said Detective Paul Nagata. He would not say whether the driveway was at the officer's home or explain how a gun can be secured inside a car.
The incident marked at least the third time this year that a law enforcement officer's equipment has been stolen.
On April 28 a deputy sheriff had her service revolver, uniform top and identification card taken from a bag inside her car trunk in Salt Lake. And on April 19 a Honolulu police officer had a gun, badge and uniform stolen from his personal car after he ran out of gas and left it unattended on an Ewa roadside. The guns taken in both incidents were recovered.
Police officers are required by law to always have a gun and badge "readily available," but HPD policy allows for some exceptions, according to police spokesman Capt. Frank Fujii. For example, an officer may be without a gun belt when playing sports or when drinking alcohol, he said.
"It's a Catch-22," Fujii said. "The officer was not in violation of any policy."
Police did not open an internal-affairs investigation into the incident, and the officer was not penalized, Nagata said.