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Two men in a sixth-floor Hawaii Kai apartment from which more than six dozen shots were fired early today surrendered to police soon after daybreak.
Two men surrender this morning
after keeping police at bay for hoursBy Rod Ohira
Star-BulletinSome of the gunfire was directed at patrol officers, four of whom were pinned down in front of the Heritage House condominium building at 6710 Hawaii Kai Drive.
Specialized Services Division personnel, using an armored vehicle, rescued the officers soon after 6 a.m. "He knows he's shooting at police," said Maj. Henry "Butch" Robinson, who estimated 75 shots were fired from 1 to 6:30 a.m.
Lt. William Kato said that there were a lot of bullet holes inside the apartment and that at least three homes on Hawaii Kai Drive sustained minor gunshot damage.
No injuries were reported from the nearly six-hour incident.
"The continuing call outs of SSD (Specialized Services Division) and availability of guns are of great concern to us," Chief Lee Donohue said today.
"This was really tough and I'm proud of the job our guys did."
Negotiators talked the first suspect out at 6:35 a.m. and the second man surrendered five minutes later.
Police fired one shot at the suspect, said Lt. Gregory Poole of police Internal Affairs.
"The guy was letting out some long bursts and they were getting near to our officers," Poole said.
A 38-year-old man, who owns the sixth-floor unit, and the other man taken into custody are facing attempted first-degree murder charges for allegedly shooting at four officers and also reckless endangering related to discharge of the firearms, Robinson said.He said it is unknown if both men were shooting or just one. But the owner of the unit was seen wearing a holstered gun and has four high-powered rifles registered to him.
The men will be booked for three counts of attempted first-degree murder and kidnapping related to the shots fired at the officers.
"We believe this stems from a domestic dispute with his wife who lives at another address," Robinson said.
Rob Ramsey, who lives with his girlfriend, Selena Smith, at 694 Kumukahi Place, said gunshots were fired in the area on two other occasions last week."Police came by last Thursday at about 9 or 10 at night, and told us they had received 20-30 complaints about gunshots," Ramsey said.
"Maybe he was shooting at the ground, but gunshots are something you don't expect in Hawaii Kai. It's normally a quiet neighborhood."
Ramsey said he also heard three or four shots fired the week before.
Police closed Hahaione Elementary School today.
Residents on the fifth and seventh floors of Heritage House were evacuated by police.
"I was really scared," said Nicki Alley, who lives on the 17th floor of Heritage House. "I saw a police rifleman on a roof of a house and I was just afraid there would be an incident in the stairwell.
"At first, there were six to nine shots, but I heard 50 or 60 all together."
