An armed man arrived at Kaua’i County Police headquarters in Lihu’e a little past noon Thursday, allegedly hunting police officers. The man, identified by authorities as Gerald Silva, 45, of Kalaheo, was wrestled to the ground by two officers and
An armed man arrived at Kaua’i County Police headquarters in Lihu’e a little past noon Thursday, allegedly hunting police officers.
The man, identified by authorities as Gerald Silva, 45, of Kalaheo, was wrestled to the ground by two officers and disarmed. One shot was fired from Silva’s rifle during the struggle, but no one was injured, police said.
Silva was questioned immediately after the incident as police tried to establish a motive for his actions.
“At about 12:15, a gentleman in our parking lot told some citizens to get out of the way because he was going to shoot the next policeman he saw,” police chief George Freitas said.
Silva was confronted by police Sgt. Scott Yagihara. Silva allegedly threatened to shoot Yagihara but before he could act, he was wrestled to the ground by officer Randy Chong Tim, police said.
Freitas stressed that officers didn’t fire their guns, despite having a weapon pointed at them, because there were citizens behind the suspect.
Freitas and Lt. Alvin Seto, in charge of the investigation into the incident, said Silva didn’t have a previous history of trouble with the police.
“We are trying to establish a motive,” Seto said four hours after the incident.
Freitas said that there aren’t any security features in the police headquarters building on Umi Street.
“We even allow people to use our private restrooms, so there are people wandering up and down our halls. But remember, this happened outside our building in our parking lot,” Freitas said.
He said the new police station the county is building near Vidinha Stadium would be less open to the public.
“There is some passive security. The public won’t have access to the entire building. There will be waiting rooms for them,” Freitas said.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
