Man charged in gang shooting
Freeway gunfire led to a 16-year-old boy being paralyzed from the chest down
A 19-year-old Makiki man was charged with attempted murder yesterday over an apparent gang-related shooting in July that left another teenager paralyzed.
Joshua Gonda was charged with first-degree attempted murder, two counts of second-degree attempted murder and two firearm offenses. He is being held in lieu of $200,000 bail, with his first court appearance scheduled for this morning.
According to court documents, Gonda was riding in a car on Moanalua Freeway around 1:30 a.m. July 9 when he allegedly fired six shots at another car, injuring 16-year-old Roger Curioso in the front passenger seat. Curioso remains paralyzed from his chest down.
Through interviews, police determined that the shooting was apparently gang-related.
On July 9 a large group of men gathered in the parking lot of Costco in Kalihi when one of them, identified as Johnny Le, said he wanted to follow boys in a yellow Lancer because he believed the car belonged to a member of a rival gang called the "Bracatas."
Gonda was one of the men who got into the back seat of a Honda Civic while others followed in two other vehicles, according to one of the gang members interviewed by police. The group then went into Kalihi Valley looking for the Lancer.
The group followed the Lancer out of Kalihi Valley and onto the Moanalua Freeway going westbound. Near the Tripler Army Medical Center offramp, Gonda, who was in the back seat, then allegedly told the passenger to move his seat forward. He then pointed a revolver out of the passenger's window and fired all six shots at the Lancer. The Civic sped off and took the offramp to Kaiser Permanente.
Curioso told the driver, Jay Baoas, that he had been shot and that blood was flowing from his left shoulder. The bullet lodged in Curioso's spine.
A police detective was able to track down a passenger in Gonda's car after a bedside interview with Curioso.
The vehicle's owner told police that Gonda and the other men parked the car in Halawa Valley and walked to the Ice Palace, where another car picked up everyone else but him.
Police arrested Gonda Saturday afternoon after he was identified as the shooter.