KAPAA — Police arrested two men who allegedly threatened a woman with a gun outside St. Catherine School Tuesday afternoon.
Shortly before 2 p.m., police were dispatched to the school on Kawaihau Road in Kapaa, where it was reported that two men had threatened a woman with a gun, according to a Kauai Police Department press release.
A police dispatch call around 2:30 p.m. said one of the men threatened a woman and a child at gunpoint, attempting to force them into his car. Police said no injuries were reported.
According to witness reports collected by police, the men, whose identifies have not bee released, fled the scene in a white Toyota Tacoma and drove down Kawaihau Road. They were spotted near Lihi Park, then pursued by police up Olohena Road before abandoning their vehicle at Waipouli Road, police said.
Waipuna Puulei, a resident of Waipouli Road in Kapaa, said one of the men tried to hide on his property after the truck broke down in the street near his home.
“I guess he hit a pothole right in front of my house,” Puulei said. “It popped his tire or something because he had to get out and go straight into the bushes, which was my house.”
Puulei was at work when he got a call from his girlfriend that police were chasing a man near his house. By the time he got home, police were wrapping things up, but he said relatives and friends told him the truck was speeding up the highway when it hit a pothole, swerved and spun around 180 degrees. The two men jumped out of the car and fled on foot. Thirteen police cars followed closely behind.
Puulei said one of the suspects ran down a hill away from the road, and the other hid in a nearby patch of bamboo, but it didn’t take long for police, working with a dog and a helicopter, to catch both men.
A KPD press release did not specify when the suspects were arrested, but shortly after 3 p.m., a Kauai police officer at St. Catherine School told parents and staff both suspects had been taken into custody.
St. Catherine School administrators and teachers kept a close eye on students waiting to get picked up after school let out Thursday afternoon.
“We’re just trying to keep our kiddos as safe as possible,” Principal Britt Cocumelli said, as she walked hurriedly between school buildings. “We’re just lucky to have teachers with so much love for our students.”
Immediately following the incident, school officials contacted parents and placed the school on lockdown, according to a KPD press release. The school lockdown has since been lifted.
No trial
Shark food
What’s going on Kauai? It would be interesting to do a study on what are The contributing factors and demographics to build crime awareness and the its factors.
I’m wondering if it’s all the mainlanders and also the drugs being imported.
In recent memory through news outlets, many criminals come to Hawaii to hide out. Kauai, Oahu, and the rest of the Hawaiian islands have seen an increase in traffic deaths and murders. The judicial system and counties need to address this public safety issues and work with other agencies to collect and share data to inform the people and let it be known that the citizens and public safety officers are ready and vigilant.
I believe that Kauai can reduce or prevent some of these crimes with proper training, awareness, and programs that help identify situations and also provides the community an active role in participating as a member of public safety like a neighborhood watch. Why not have an island watch to help keep the entire island safe.
It’s all about the money and ensuring that positions are made and kept and salaries for judicial employees are met with increases. This is the bottom line of a corrupt judicial system and replicated in how Hawaii politics plays a major role in greed like the Honolulu rail project that I am hoping and praying that people go down for and pay for their greed with civil penalties and criminal charges.
WTF Kauai? Watch
“13 police cars”😱😱. I didn’t know KPD had 13 police cars!!! I hope they soon release the names of the two guys. And where they are from.
It’s a good thing while the 13 KPD Officers were in hot pursuit for the two men in the Toyota pickup. There wasn’t any other crime(s) happening elsewhere!
P.S.
13 KPD Officers in individual vehicles. Wow!
13 police units to go after 2 suspects? Having a slow day officers?
Please don’t release the names of the suspects yet or ever, their uncles , cousins and brothers were in hot pursuit in 13 vehicles. Not sure if they know that 90 percent of the time suspects return to their residences if not pursued. Good police training there, a few dead pedestrians is no more nothing, plenty of GET taxes to settle anything. Good thing the state and county roads have so many potholes, this could have been serious. Let me check my phone.
Emails to parents said gunmen were on campus and attack happened on campus. Please correct reporting. Will suspects be charged with endangering lives of staff and students at St. Catherine’s? Why weren’t other schools in area placed on lockdown?
“Dear Parents,
I wanted to update you that the police have caught the suspects off campus. As a precaution we will be keeping the remainder of the students in the preschool for After School Care.
There were two men between the PLC and the Hall and they did have a gun. They had followed someone onto campus and threatened them. A staff member saw them and yelled for them to get off campus immediately and they did. Police were contacted and we rang three bells for the lock-down. I ran through campus to make sure the students were safely in their lock-down areas.
Our staff did an amazing job protecting, calming, and loving them. I walked the perimeter of the campus to make sure no one else was hiding in any other areas. The safety of the children is always our number one concern. Please email me if you have any questions.
God Bless You All
Britt Cocumelli”