Hostage-taker:
‘I didn’t shoot to kill’

Wayman Kaua says shots fired
during an October 1998 standoff
were to warn cops

By Susan Kreifels
Star-Bulletin

Convicted felon Wayman Kaua said he didn't intend to hit police when he shot repeatedly at them during a 24-hour standoff in October 1998.

During the standoff, he barricaded himself in a Pacific Palisades home with his wife and a female hostage.

Kaua, testifying in his own trial yesterday, said that he didn't want police to come into the house because he was afraid his wife would be hurt.

"I just wanted them to hear shots and know I was armed," said Kaua, who had violated parole by taking drugs. "I didn't shoot to kill. I wouldn't take a child's father or wife's husband."

Kaua is charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, first-degree terroristic threatening, reckless endangering, and owning and possessing a prohibited firearm.

The standoff ended when Kaua was shot by a police marksman.

Kaua was paroled in August 1997. He said he attended church, coached his son and joined a neighborhood watch.

When he was laid off work at Waipio Gentry, "I felt things just caving in."

He got another job at Menehune Water Co., but his parole officer made him quit because he was working on commission and didn't clock his time, Kaua said.

When bills went unpaid and he couldn't find work, the relationship with his wife soured. He went back to drugs in October 1998, using crystal methamphetamine twice, he said. He admitted the drugs to his parole officer and tested positive for them. But he thought the officer was going to let him enroll in a drug program.

Instead, his parole officer had an arrest warrant issued and called him in to meet at the parole office. But Kaua arrived early, spotted the sheriffs and bolted.

"It wasn't too late for me," he testified. "I still had a chance.

"I thought I'd just get a gun and blow my head off."

Kaua said he was "stone sober" during the standoff.

Several times during the standoff, Kaua marched his hostage and wife outside on a balcony, holding them by the hair at gunpoint and taunting police to shoot him.

Kaua said yesterday he "just wanted them (police) to know, don't come in. My wife was with me."

Closing arguments in the trial will be presented Wednesday.