A 22-hour hostage standoff came to an end about 1:30 p.m. today after police officers stormed a house on Waimano Home Road and brought out the gunman, Wayman Kaua, 30.
Hundreds of Pacific Palisades residents has remained trapped in their homes overnight and this morning as police negotiated with Kaua, who had held two women with him in the house. He had fired shots at a private school yesterday afternoon, and shots were heard several times in the house this morning.
At about 1:30 p.m. today, police sent in a SWAT team with officers wearing helmets, goggles, shotguns and body armor. At 1:44 p.m., the first shots rang out from the house, followed by smoke.
Three minutes later, two ambulances rushed to the scene and SWAT members secured the house.
A bare-chested man with jeans, fitting Kaua's description, was taken out on a stretcher and put into an ambulance minutes after the shooting. He was taken to Queen's Hospital in critical condition.
Deputy Police Chief William Clark said a woman in the house suffered minor neck injuries in the exchange. But he would not comment on the suspect's condition, or whether anyone else had been injured.
Police later said Kaua was shot in the upper chest area by a sharp-shooter when he appeared on the house balcony, a gun pointed at his wife's neck. When both he and the woman fell, the woman took Kaua's gun and threw it acoss the driveway, then ran for cover. Kaua was trying to run back into the house when police nabbed him, police said.
As soon as the first shots rang out, Raynette Kaua, the suspect's mother, screamed and collapsed into her brother's arms. She watched from a distance, screaming with each shot fired.
At 2 p.m., Clark said the situation was under control, the house was clear, and homicide detectives were sent in to investigate.
Police this afternoon also said one of Kaua's two female captives had been released from the house earlier today.
While hundreds of Pacific Palisades reamined trapped in their houses, other residents spent the night in shelters, unable to return to their neighborhood after police closed the only road leading into the area.
Pacific Palisades and Momilani elementary schools and Pearl City High School were closed today because of safety and traffic concerns, said Greg Knudsen, Department of Education spokesman. The Children's House, a preschool, also was closed.
"The situation is still volatile. It's not a safe area at this time," Assistant Chief Boisse Correa said this morning at a police command post set up at Momilani Elementary School, about a half-mile above the scene.
"We're trying our best to put a handle on it. We just want it to end in a peaceful manner."
At early morning, a shot was heard fired inside the house. Kaua had emerged at 7:20 a.m. on the balcony of the home, armed with a high-powered rifle and accompanied by two women hostages.
He aimed the rifle at the women before they disappeared back into the home.
Kaua emerged again at 9:05 a.m., this time with one of the women. She was identified by a relative as his wife, Chanel. Kaua pointed the rifle at her head as though showing off to police, then escorted her back inside a minute later.
Then at 9:30 a.m., two shots were heard inside the home.
The standoff began at about 3:30 p.m. yesterday when sheriff's deputies tried to serve a warrant on Kaua.
Police said Kaua, who had been involved in a similar standoff eight years ago, fired several shots near Children's House, a school where about 94 children were taking part in an after-school care program.
The children were eventually reunited with their parents after nightfall. But hundreds of other parents were separated from their children overnight and through the morning.
At 4 a.m. police evacuated seven children and five adults in the A+ program at Palisades Preschool. At 8 a.m., 20 children and their two coaches who were at a meeting at a nearby home also were evacuated.
Negotiators called the gunman's uncle, Herman Kaua. He and his wife, Charlene, had been at the scene since 5:30 p.m. yesterday, but police allowed them no contact with the gunman.
"He's a good guy and a good father. He's just screwing up, I guess," Herman Kaua said. "Nobody knows why he's doing this."
The couple said Wayman Kaua has four young children -- two boys and two girls -- who are in their grandmother's care in Pearl City.
Eight years ago this month, Kaua held a pregnant woman and her infant son hostage in a three-hour standoff on Renton Road in Ewa.
Relatives said Kaua had been released on parole within the past year.
The Ewa standoff also trapped children at a school until after the danger had passed.
Early this morning, police brought an armored M-88 tank retriever and a Humvee from the National Guard to the scene.
About a dozen residents with special needs were taken to and from neighboring homes, including a baby with a high fever, a baby who needed to be breast-fed but was separated from the mother, and someone who needed dialysis.
Correa, apologizing to residents, said he didn't know how long the situation would last.
"It's not safe, and we're trying to make it safe."
Adam Drummondo, who was setting up a tent at the Leeward Community Church on Komo Mai Drive, said he saw the gunman fire what appeared to be random shots."First he came out; he shot a couple rounds. Then he went back in and came back out and shot a couple more rounds," Drummondo said.
Hundreds of people spent the night in their cars along Waimano Home Road or at three shelters set up by the American Red Cross at Pearl City District Park, Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish and the United Methodist Church on Komo Mai Drive.
Only one Red Cross shelter, at Pearl City District Park, was open today where people could get meals and take showers.
About 75 to 100 Palisades residents spent the night at the recreation center sleeping on exercise mats inside or outside in their cars.
About 200 people at Our Lady of Good Counsel slept in the rectory, pews, halls and outside in their cars. They were moved to the Pearl City Recreation Center today because of morning services and a funeral later today.
Most were in good spirits although many hadn't been home in 24 hours and had family members and pets they were worried about.
Sharon Bowman sat on a rug under a tree with her head resting against her car today at the recreation center. "Might as well relax," she said.
She heard about the standoff while driving on the freeway yesterday and drove to Waikele Shopping Center to bide some time.
"I spent two hours there killing time and went to dinner killing more time, and then to my sister-in-laws to kill more time."
She had four dogs stranded at home who hadn't eaten in 24 hours. One was epileptic and had no medicine.
Marilou Kacatin was separated from her 11-year-old son by the standoff.
"I told him to close all the doors and if somebody knocks, don't answer, and to do his homework," she said.
Above the police line, residents who were stuck at home yesterday and today did yardwork, jogged and offered food to stranded visitors.
Marco Baoec, a Federal Express worker from Ewa Beach, was making deliveries in Palisades. As he tried to head out at about 4:30 p.m. yesterday, he saw the Palisades exit was blocked. He sat on Komo Mai Drive waiting and called the office to say he was stuck.
The office called John and Wai Souza, a husband and wife who live around the corner from the blockade on the Palisades side and who both work for Federal Express. Souza went out and got Baoec, offering him food and a place to stay.
"We're all family down at the office," Souza said. Souza also lent Baoec some clothes, and as they sat down for breakfast with two of their children this morning, Souza was dressed for work but resigned to doing household chores.
Ronald Coelho of Makakilo, owner of the Waipahu business Screen Works, came to Palisades on a job and got stuck there.
He spent the night at the barricade, sleeping on the grassy median. This morning, he ate hot dogs bought by a Palisades resident at the one convenience store in the subdivision, Fastop.
Residents set up a table at the barricade with hot dogs, chips, sodas and fruits. Kapua Villarin, 16, a Pearl City High School junior, said her family made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and distributed them along with sodas.
"I think the gunman is pretty selfish," said the neighbor, Gaynor Kaupu. "He's only thinking of himself."
Star-Bulletin reporters Jaymes Song, Sjarif Goldstein
and Helen Altonn contributed to this report.
Gunman apparently
By Craig Gima and Susan Kreifels
upset about being
unable to pay bills
Star-BulletinPeople who went to church with Wayman Kaua describe him as a warm, outgoing family man who seemed to be making a new life for himself until he lost his job recently and couldn't find work.
"He really wanted to make it for his family because they mean a lot for him, and I think that's why the frustration was even more so when he found out he couldn't provide for them after losing his job," said John Vaughn, a prison chaplain at the Waiawa Correctional Facility.
Vaughn is also a member of the Palisades Baptist Church, where Kaua regularly attended Sunday services with his wife and four children, who range in age from 2 to 12.
Vaughn said Kaua had been out on parole for about a year and a half. He believed that Kaua was committed to his family and the church, and because of that "had really good possibilities."
Kaua was working as a painter and laborer, but was recently laid off because business was slow.
"He wanted so much to work and support his family but he couldn't find regular jobs and then the bills piled up," said Pearl Maeda, the wife of the church's pastor.
Maeda said Kaua helped out at the church pre-school. But in the last month or so, Kaua stopped coming to church. Church members tried to reach out to him but when they called or visited his home in Pearl City, he was not around.
"He got desperate and rather than reaching out for help, he began to distance himself from others that could help him and he began to close himself off," Vaughn said.
Kaua has an extensive crime record that started as a juvenile. After pleading guilty to a 1987 second-degree robbery, his case was waived by Family Court because he had not gotten along with staff while incarcerated in juvenile facilities. His re
cords said many earlier violations against him had been dismissed for lack of witnesses. He didn't pay a $75 fine or get counseling to help himself. The state asked that he be placed in a rehabilitation program through the Adult Court, which was granted.
In 1990, Kaua, then a convicted robber, was involved in another tense armed standoff with police when they tried to arrest him for violating his probation. At that time, Kaua also had been unemployed, court records show. He fired at police while he barricaded himself inside his Ewa home with his pregnant girlfriend and her infant son. He surrendered after three hours and there were no injuries. The woman and child were not hostages.
The small Renton Road community was paralyzed during the standoff. Several streets were barricaded, and about 40 nearby Ewa Elementary School students were kept in their classrooms.
On Sept. 29, 1992, the court permitted him to get married while he was incarcerated.
Kaua has had at least four cases before the Famly Court since 1991. Only one case file was available today. In that case, he was accused of abusing a family member, Shellnell Kaua, on Oct. 8, 1996, the records said. But the case was dismissed with prejudice because the complainant did not appear in court, said she had falsified her complaint, and would recant at any trial.
Teachers keep kids
cool during ‘fireworks’Staff at Children's House, in the
By Craig Gima
gunman's line of fire, brought students
indoors till after dark
Star-BulletinParents and police praised the staff of the Children's House, a private school for preschool to sixth grade, which was in the line of fire for the gunman.
Teachers said they heard at least three shots fired at the school yesterday afternoon.
The teachers brought the children indoors. Police kept them in the classrooms until after dark, when a caravan of four police and sheriff's vehicles made several trips to the school to bring them out at 7:30 p.m.
Parents spent several anxious hours at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish on Waimano Road waiting for word about their children.
"There she is," one parent cried when the children arrived safely in the church parking lot.
"It's OK, Mommy's here," said another as she picked up her toddler.
Six-year-old Lindsey Strach and her friend Jennifer Los Banos thought the gunshots were firecrackers.
"But we didn't see the fireworks in the sky," Strach said."When I heard the gunshots, I was very scared, very anxious," said Joanne Pontes, a junior kindergarten teacher. "I was scared for the kids."
Dave Palmer, the parent of a 4-year-old girl, said when he called the school, his daughter told him, "We're playing, Daddy."
"She was oblivious to what was going on," he said.
Palmer said he was nervous at first but was comforted because it seemed the situation was under control.
Three-year-old Conrad Wolfe hugged his mother, Sherrie Wolfe, tightly around the neck after being reunited. "They told me he might have to sleep over," Sherrie Wolfe said. "I thought, 'He hasn't slept anywhere without us.'"
Teachers and about a dozen parents also trapped at the school kept the children occupied by singing karaoke, watching a video of Peter Pan and playing limbo.
They also fed the children a meal of macaroni, corn, bread and pears.
After being reunited, many of the children and their parents remained trapped below police lines and had to spend the night at the church.
