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By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Right after a gunman got out of a stolen car and shot himself,
police move in on the scene of an earlier car crash. The white police
car in the center, with the open door, had been hit by a stolen black
Camaro driven by the gunman, Dominic Kekoa Kealoha.
The Camaro had been stolen earlier yesterday
from a man in Waipahu.

A gunman spends 12 hours
huddled in a stolen car, then
tries to run from police
before killing himself

Police reopen Farrington Highway
just before this morning's
rush hour

EVENTS TIMELINE
KEALOHA WARRANT

Standoff over, roads open
Second route lacking
Kids, motorists stuck

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

Nearly 24 hours after he allegedly shot a man in a dispute involving stolen cars, a Nanakuli man fired a gun into his mouth, ending a standoff with police that paralyzed traffic on the Waianae Coast.

A critically wounded Dominic Kekoa Kealoha, 28, was airlifted to Queen's Hospital, where he died early today.

Kealoha was trying to flee from police yesterday when the stolen black Camaro he was driving collided with a blue-and-white HPD patrol car at the intersection of Farrington Highway and Nanakuli Avenue at 1:20 p.m.

The ensuing standoff forced the closure of Farrington Highway from 1:22 p.m. yesterday to 3:20 a.m. today, when police began opening one lane to traffic in each direction. All lanes were opened at 5:39 a.m.

Dominic Kekoa Kealoha
KILLS HIMSELF WITH GUNSHOT
Kealoha, imprisoned in 1996 for burglary
and assault, was wanted for
a parole violation.

The Army opened Kolekole Pass at about 3 p.m. yesterday, allowing drivers to reach Farrington Highway without passing the standoff site. "Traffic was moving slowly, but it was moving," said Ron Jay, Army deputy public affairs officer.

At the start of the standoff, 19-year-old Natasha Gonsalves was in the car with Kealoha, who was armed with a revolver.

Gonsalves left the car at 5:07 p.m. and was later arrested for armed robbery in connection with a 12:50 p.m. theft of the Camaro from a Waipahu man at his Hiapaiole Loop home.

Kealoha remained in the car as police negotiators attempted to get him to surrender.

Evacuated citizens taken to shelters

The Oahu Civil Defense evacuated hundreds of Nanakuli residents
from their homes during the police stand-off, taking them to shelters
at Waianae District Park and Makakilo Community Park.

---

"He was awake at times and asleep at times," Assistant Chief Boisse Correa said.

At about 2 a.m., Kealoha came out of the car and began walking toward the beach, said Correa.

Specialized Services Division officers confronted Kealoha. When he refused orders to stop and began running, the officers fired five nonlethal "bean bag" rounds at him from close range.

"It struck him but didn't stop him," Correa said. "He then shot himself in the head. It's a situation we did not want to occur."

Correa said police did not fire any live rounds at Kealoha.

Kealoha was the suspected shooter in yesterday's early-morning shooting of a 24-year-old man at Depot Beach Park in Nanakuli, Correa said.

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Police begin their investigation after the gunman left his car, then killed himself.

The man, who was shot in the chest at about 3:30 a.m., is in critical condition at Queen's Hospital.

Police said the wounded man and two females, ages 21 and 17, left a stolen Honda parked on Haleakala Avenue, a block away from Nanakuli Avenue, and went joyriding in another Honda they had just stolen in Ewa.

They returned to find Kealoha in the stolen car they had parked. A confrontation led to the shooting, police said.

Kealoha then went to various locations in Pearl City before going to the Waipahu man's home. The car was stolen at gunpoint and the victim was tied up, Correa said.

According to HPD dispatch records, a police officer spotted the stolen Camaro headed west on the H-1 freeway near the Kunia off-ramp at 1:10 p.m., about seven minutes after the theft was reported.

Police units were waiting at Kahe Point to stop the car but Kealoha attempted to flee.

"He was driving like a madman," said Dianna Midgett of Helelua St. "The black car spins out in the dirt (to get away from the police) and then is heading straight toward us.

"A white truck pulls out to avoid the black car and I pulled over. Thank God I saw the truck swerve."

Anela Pau said the Camaro was cutting in and out of traffic.

"He was flying," she said. "He spun out at Kahe Point and got back on the road and drove toward Waianae."

The Camaro collided with a police car at Nanakuli Avenue, which leads to the high school and is across the street from Nanaikapono Elementary.

Eric Fisher, a construction worker headed to Maili Point for a job, says he saw two officers approaching the Camaro with weapons drawn.

"They were yelling at him to get out of the car," Fisher said.

About 1,000 students and faculty from the elementary school were taken to the back of the school at about 4:30 p.m. and evacuated by bus to Nanakuli High School by way of Haleakala Avenue.

"This is so frustrating," Jackie Ku said. "I want my kids to come home, be certain they're safe. I don't know if they're hungry or thirsty."

But 8-year-old Natasha Haae said students were OK.

"We were wondering when our parents were going to pick us up," Natasha said. "We were watching TV and to keep us under control but I knew something was wrong."

1. Dominic Kealoha crashes into a police car at intersection of
Nanakuli and Farrington Highway at 1:10 p.m. yesterday. Suspect is
boxed in by police, beginning 12-hour stand-off. 2. About 1,000
students and staff at Nanaikapono Elementary School are evacuated.
3. Nanaikapono students are taken to Nanakuli High & Intermediate
School. 4. Kealoha shoots himself after confrontation with SWAT
officers at 2:10 a.m. and later dies at hospital.

---

It began with a shot,
and it ended with one

YESTERDAY

3:45 a.m. A 24-year-old, critically injured man is admitted to Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Clinic with a single gunshot wound in his chest. The hospital reports the shooting to the Honolulu Police Department.

3:50 a.m. Police investigate the shooting and interview several witnesses at the Waianae police station. Police block off Depot Beach Park, where the shooting took place.

4:45 a.m. The shooting victim is airlifted to Queen's Hospital.

12:50 p.m. A man is allegedly tied up and robbed at gunpoint of his black Camaro at his Hiapaiole Loop home in Waipahu.

1:03 p.m. The robbery is reported to police.

1:10 p.m. Police officer spots a black Camaro heading west on the H-1 Freeway near the Kunia offramp.

1:20 p.m. The Camaro is involved in a crash with a police squad car at Farrington Highway and Nanakuli Avenue. The armed driver, identified as Dominic Kekoa Kealoha, refuses officers' orders to get out of the car. A woman, Natasha Gonsalves, is also in the car. Standoff begins.

1:22 p.m. Police close Farrington Highway, causing heavy backups all around the Leeward Coast.

3 p.m. U.S. Army opens Schofield's Kolekole Pass as an alternate route into Waianae.

4:30 p.m. About 1,000 students and staff from Nanaikapono Elementary are evacuated and transported on a bus.

5:07 p.m. Gonsalves exits from t he Camero and is taken into police custody.

6:27 p.m. Some stranded motorists are transported by city bus to shelters in Makakilo and Waianae.

TODAY

1:17 a.m. A single gunshot is heard. But police are uncertain where the shot came from.

2 a.m. Gonsalves is arrested in connection with the robbery.

2:10 a.m. Six shots are heard. Police SWAT officers fire five nonlethal "beanbag" rounds at Kealoha, who gets out of the car and walks toward the beach. Kealoha shoots himself in the head with a handgun, ending the 12-hour standoff.

3:29 a.m. One lane in each direction of Farrington Highway is opened while the crash is cleared.

5:39 a.m. All lanes of Farrington Highway are opened.

6 a.m. Kealoha is pronounced dead at the hospital.

---

Arrest warrant for
Kealoha issued Jan. 6

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

DOMINIC Kealoha was being sought by sheriff's deputies even before yesterday's standoff in Nanakuli.

Al Beaver, chairman of the Hawaii Paroling Authority, said an arrest warrant had been issued Jan. 6 for Kealoha, who had absconded in late December from Victory Ohana, a structured living program for inmates getting out of jail.

After his release from prison Nov. 10, 1999, the authority had mandated he enter the program for six months to help him reintegrate back into the community following nearly five years of incarceration.

The residential program provides or contracts for substance abuse and anger management counseling, among other services.

The Paroling Authority had held Kealoha two years longer after the expiration of his three-year minimum term for two burglary convictions because authorities were investigating him in connection with a felony offense, Beaver said. No charges resulted from that investigation.

His record includes 26 adult arrests that involve his four convictions and two for probation violations.

While his convictions go back to 1990, he was also arrested eight times as a juvenile.

The woman who was allegedly held hostage in the car was also being sought for domestic-violence warrants.

Natasha Gonsalves, 19, had been convicted of abuse of a family member and criminal property damage in September 1998, and was sentenced to one year of probation.

As conditions of her probation, Gonsalves was ordered to undergo anger management, substance abuse assessment and parenting classes.

She repeatedly violated those conditions, showing up for drug assessment while under the influence, according to the center.

Her probation was revoked in October 1999, and arrest warrants were issued.

Another warrant was issued in December 1999 after she failed to show for a compliance hearing.