Gunfire erupted during a home invasion robbery in Wahiawa on Tuesday night, with a 26-year-old woman allegedly shooting at two attackers.

Several residents took cover during the melee. Police arrested three suspects in the shooting that left three people injured.

Neighbor Nathan Tamba said his brother went outside after hearing the initial gunshots. He saw two wounded men walking up the street, then heard several more shots. His brother ducked back toward his house, thinking the men were shooting at him.

Police said two men, 23 and 38, armed with handguns and carrying plastic zip ties, showed up at the Kilea Place house about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday and ordered two women and a man — all in their 20s — to shut themselves inside, but told a second man, 28, apparently the intended victim, to stay outside.

He tried to disarm his assailants, but one of the guns went off, striking him.

When one suspect pointed his gun at the 26-year-old woman, she opened fire at the two men, who returned fire before running to a car driven by a third man and fleeing.

Witnesses said about a dozen shots were fired.

Police stopped the car, a Volkswagen Jetta, at California and Kamehameha avenues and arrested the 31-year-old driver and the two other men for attempted murder in the first degree.

The two other men in the car were taken to a hospital with multiple gunshot wounds, said Bryan Cheplic, city Emergency Services Department spokesman.

One man was in critical condition and the other was in stable condition with a single gunshot wound, Cheplic said.

Paramedics responded to the Kilea Place address, where they treated the 28-year-old man for a single gunshot wound and took him to the hospital in stable condition, he said.

Sean Viernes, another neighbor, heard the gunshots and came out into the street. Two men in white shirts and wearing black ski masks were walking up the street when he heard several more shots. He ran into his yard as the men walked past. He saw the Jetta drive up, pick up the men, and leave.

Most neighbors know each other in the quiet neighborhood, he said.

Police Maj. Bart Huber of the Wahiawa district said it didn't appear that the victims knew the suspects.

    Shoot-out in Wahiawa injures 3

 

 

Police say the two most severely wounded men were shot by the woman who fired after her boyfriend struggled with an armed robber.

 

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“;There were wearing masks. It was a home invasion. They were robbing them,”; Huber said.

He said officers apparently didn't find any drugs or gambling material in the home.

He said the woman who fired her weapon apparently did not break any laws, which allow people to use deadly force in their home if their lives are threatened.

Several Kilea Place residents said a home invasion robbery occurred at the same house on Feb. 14, 2009, when four men wearing black hooded jackets tied up a Wahiawa couple at gunpoint.

Tamba said the residents were the same people targeted in last year's robbery, in which the man's wife was tied up and bandits took off with money and their car. He surmised that the woman may have been ready with a gun because of the prior incident.

Police did not say whether that case had been solved.