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He was checking on a fight
at the house next door
in Mililani

---

By Treena Shapiro
Star-Bulletin

Dino Arado was just trying to help his neighbors when he was shot in the heart Saturday night, relatives and police say.

Arado had just returned to his Mililani home about 9 p.m. after spending the day golfing when he heard scuffling and screaming from the house next door. He went to check on his neighbors and was calling out to them when he was shot. He was still holding a golf club, police said.

"The guys were running out and one shot him point-blank in the heart," said Sherri Thomas, whose husband, Richard, is Arado's cousin.

Neighbors who witnessed the shooting said between six and eight people entered the driveway at 95-152 Waimakua Drive and beat 21-year-old Brian Chamberlain. Chamberlain had been waiting outside for a pizza delivery. The suspects had been looking for Chamberlain's roommate, who worked with one of the men, police said. They allegedly beat Chamberlain because they didn't like the way he spoke to them.

Chamberlain was taken to an area hospital for treatment of a broken jaw and head lacerations, then released. Arado was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Police arrested three men aged 30, 22, and 19. Two women, 18 and 19, and one 17-year-old girl who had been in the car with the suspects were released.

Neighbors for 40 years

Arado, 38, had lived at 95-148 Waimakua Drive his entire life. His family and the people who owned the house next door had been neighbors for more than 40 years, Thomas said. "They tend to want to find out what's happening." Although his wife and mother told him not to go because of the fighting, Arado went anyway to see if he could help.

"He'll give the shirt off his back if he could," she said.

Thomas described Arado as a joker. "He's fun-loving, loves to golf, loves children, loves the outdoors," she said. He also loved to sing, she said, and won the Hawaii Stars karaoke contest several years ago. Arado worked at a City and County of Honolulu sewage plant.

Arado and his wife had no children, so he spent a great deal of time with Thomas' three sons. "They loved their uncle," Thomas said. The avid golfer often took them to the course with him and let them drive the cart.

Yesterday afternoon, the whole family was at Arado's house and the boys hovered around Arado's blue Honda, which was still blocked the driveway where he had left it when he came home. They occasionally crept over to scene of the shooting, which was marked with a yellow chalk circle. A colorful bouquet of flowers had been placed within the circle.

Reason for fight unknown

Chamberlain had just rented out a room next door about a month ago, but Richard Thomas, who had also lived in the neighborhood his whole life, said Chamberlain had previously lived with his mother at a home just down the road.

"He's a pretty good guy, he works, he's responsible," he said.

Richard said he couldn't speculate on what may have caused the fight. Most of the people in the neighborhood have lived there more than 30 years and tend to be friendly with one another, he said.

His cousin's shooting was senseless, he said. "It was just neighbors being neighbors. He was helping the neighbors as much as anyone else would."