THE SUNSET BEACH SHOOTING

Arrest eases tense week of violence on North Shore

Police see the series of gun deaths as a "spike," not a trend

After days of canvassing witnesses, police made an arrest yesterday in the fatal shooting of 30-year-old Dillon Ching at Sunset Beach amid community concerns that violence may be escalating.

A 21-year-old Wahiawa man was being held on suspicion of second-degree murder.

The suspect is known to police for drug involvement and had eluded police by cutting off his waist-long hair, officers said. He has also been convicted of two petty misdemeanors -- disorderly conduct and driving without a license, and a misdemeanor -- first-degree criminal trespassing in 2005 and 2006.

Ching died after being shot twice while trying to protect his family during a fracas that broke out with beach partygoers on the North Shore.

Despite that incident and last week's fatal shooting in Kaneohe, Honolulu police Capt. Frank Fujii said Honolulu remains one of the country's safest large cities.

"It's common that we see spikes here and there, not just shootings, but we see spikes in (motor vehicle) fatalities, spikes in burglaries, spikes in robberies," Fujii said.

What sets Honolulu apart, he said, is that police and the community work together, the process that resulted in yesterday's arrest in the North Shore case.

North Shore Neighborhood Board Chairman Michael Lyons, a retired Honolulu police sergeant with 31 1/2 years with the department, said there may be a trend toward more violence, but he's not sure if it's all gun-related or whether gun violence simply gets the most publicity.

The recent shootings emphasize the need for more beat officers, especially on the North Shore, he said.

In the Ching shooting, "it took police a little while" because of the number of bystanders, Lyons said. "Bottom line is, the community for years has asked for more officer coverage."

Of all HPD's districts, District 2 covers the largest geographical area -- 204 square miles from Central Oahu to the North Shore.

Ching was killed during a fight between a group of about 40 beach partygoers and a small group gathered at his family's home across from a beach fronting the surf spot known as Log Cabins, near Sunset Beach Elementary School.

Someone fired a gun and crowd and struck Ching in the chest, piercing a lung.

"This kind of thing just devastates everybody," Lyons said. "If you're not related, you seem to know somebody who is. It's a small community.

"It seems like a lot of the outsiders are the problem," he said.

In Kaneohe on May 14, 27-year-old Benjamin Grajeda, a native of North Hollywood, Calif., was shot repeatedly in the torso allegedly by 26-year-old Jerrico Dewon Lindsey. That led to a massive manhunt on the North Shore.

The Kaneohe Neighborhood Board met after the shooting and only one individual, a member of the board, expressed any concerns and asked police for additional information, said board Chairman Roy Yanagihara.

"It's very disturbing, but we don't view it as a trend in our community," he said.

Yanagihara said residents are not particularly alarmed since it appears the people involved were not members of the community, which he describes as close-knit and generally has a low turnover rate.

Fujii emphasized police are always concerned with public safety whenever there is a shooting. He said the shootings serve as a reminder for people to safeguard their guns because crimes are often committed with stolen handguns.

Monday night's shooting of a 16-year-old Aiea boy was found to be accidental and the alleged shooter was a friend of the victim.