Former Honolulu Deputy Police Chief Charles Duarte was less than four months away from retirement on Jan. 8, 1974, when he entered a Makiki apartment unarmed and persuaded an armed fugitive to release his seven hostages and turn himself in. [ CHARLES DUARTE /
RETIRED DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF ]
Hostage standoff led to
top award for braveryAfter retirement, he was
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security director for Hawaiian Tel
By Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.comOne of the hostages was a police detective.
For their actions, Duarte and the detective, Wallace Nishikida, received the Gold Medal of Valor, HPD's highest award for bravery. Duarte remains the highest-ranking HPD officer to receive the award.
Duarte died last Wednesday. He was 85.
The fugitive, Ray Barton, was an escapee from Halawa prison. He claimed there was a contract on his life inside the prison. Barton met Duarte when Duarte was a police captain in charge of the prison, and asked to speak to him during the standoff.
Duarte did not like being photographed in uniform.
"We don't have any pictures of him in uniform," his daughter Charlotte Hite said.
And neither does HPD.
"When he retired he got rid of all of them," said Officer Eddie Croom, HPD Law Enforcement Museum Curator.
"That's how he was, very humble, shied away from attention," Hite said.
Upon his retirement after 32 years in HPD, Duarte heaped praise on his fellow officers.
Duarte went on to serve as security director for Hawaiian Telephone Co. from 1975 to 1982 and as a member and chairman of the Honolulu Police Commission from 1976 to 1981.
He is survived by wife Beatrice R., daughters Yvonne Cashman and Hite, son Chuck and five grandchildren.
Visitation starts at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at St. Anthony's Church at 114 Makawao St. in Kailua, followed by Mass at 11 a.m. Burial is at Diamond Head Memorial Park at 2 p.m.