Fatal HPD shootout
angers fugitive’s familyNonlethal weapons should
have been used, relatives argue
The mother of a man shot to death by police Thursday said her son, who had been the subject of a law enforcement manhunt, called home the night before he died.
Patricia Morse said when she answered the phone, Gordon Morse said, "It's your hothead son."
She told him to "please turn yourself in."
Then on Thursday, she learned of his death by watching television news. Images of his bloodied body covered with a sheet and lying lifeless on a balcony at Mayor Wright Homes haunt her, she said.
"I was worried because I knew he was running away from the law," she said. "But I didn't think it would happen this way. I was hoping they would catch him."
Morse was killed Thursday afternoon at an apartment on Pua Lane in the Mayor Wright Homes complex after a shootout, which also left a Kalihi substation police officer and a 19-year-old man injured with gunshot wounds.
"We're angry because of the way they handled it," said Vanessa Spake, Morse's aunt. "They overdid it. ... We feel bad for the ones that got hurt, but I think they could've handled it better."
In an interview at her Waianae home yesterday, Patricia Morse described her oldest son as a hard-working father of two who had hopes of building a better life after years of drug abuse.
Officer Ermie Barroga, 45, sustained a gunshot wound in the shoulder and remains in fair condition at the Queen's Medical Center. Barroga's father, Ermie Barroga Sr., said yesterday that his son remembers the shooting but has not talked much about it.
"We went visit him last night (Friday)," Barroga said. "He was improving. He was talking."
Nineteen-year-old Manuel Kalaluhi, who was on a second-story ledge along with Morse when the violence began, was shot by police in the arm. He was last reported in stable condition at Queen's.
An autopsy showed that Morse sustained several gunshot wounds but died of a single gunshot wound to the chest.
"How come so many shots had to be fired?" Patricia Morse asked yesterday, adding that she thought officers could have used nonlethal weapons on her son.
Police said that Barroga was carrying a nonlethal shotgun, which fires beanbags, when Morse allegedly shot him.
Police are still investigating how many rounds officers at the scene fired at Morse, and how many he fired at them. The five officers who discharged their firearms in the shootout have been put on standard administrative leave.
Morse had been on the run since April 30, when he failed to return to the Laumaka Work Furlough Program after a visit with his mother.
Patricia Morse said she remembers the day well -- a visit spent at the beach with Gordon Morse's two children (a 13-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl).
"He was just about to come out of Laumaka, and he didn't return," Patricia Morse said, shaking her head. "If he had called that night ... I would have begged for him to (go back)."
Spake said Morse was only two weeks from being released from the detention center.
"He had plans," she said. "He had a future. He wanted to take care of his children ... (but he) took that wrong turn."
Less than a month after his escape, Morse was allegedly involved in a string of car thefts in the Makiki-Punahou area. Police identified him as the suspect who took off in a stolen pickup truck May 21 after a traffic stop near Round Top Drive, dragging a police officer behind him. The officer suffered minor injuries.
"He was a good boy," Patricia Morse continued. "The whole family is in shock. ... He was doing so good, I don't know what happened that was a turning point."
Two others were arrested after the shootout. Wade K. Martin, 35, was charged yesterday with two counts of hindering prosecution. He is being held on $35,000 bail.
Laura E. Tavares, 33, who was also arrested on suspicion of hindering prosecution, was released yesterday afternoon pending further investigation.
Patricia Morse said she and her husband made funeral plans for their son Friday, and plan to hold services July 3 at Waianae Protestant Church.
His ashes will be scattered at sea, she said, so that "when his kids swim, he's right out there with them."
Her son's children were close to their father, and are traumatized by his death, she said. At her home yesterday, Morse pointed out the room where her son grew up. She said Morse's daughter now comes over to sleep in the same bed her father used.
"It's the innocent that get hurt," Spake said. "We have to live it and feel the pain all the time."