HONOLULU — A man shot and killed two police officers Sunday as they responded to a home in a leafy neighborhood beneath the rim of a famed volcanic crater near Waikiki Beach, authorities said.
The officers were responding to a call from a woman who said she needed help and found her with a stab wound to her leg, police said Sunday. The suspect opened fire as police arrived, killing Officers Tiffany Enriquez and Kaulike Kalama, said Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard. She said the suspect as well as two women who were in the home were unaccounted for.
Ballard said authorities would continue to search for the shooter, but that it was likely that he was inside the home when it burned.
The homeowner, Lois Cain, had recently sought to have a man evicted, court records showed. A neighbor told The Associated Press she saw Cain being loaded into an ambulance with knife wounds.
Cain’s condition was not immediately confirmed, nor was the suspect’s. Flames emerging from the home soon spread to several others. Honolulu fire said five homes were “complete losses.”
“I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family and friends of the two officers as well as the entire Honolulu Police Department,” Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell tweeted. “This is an unprecedented tragedy for not only the City and County of Honolulu but the entire state of Hawai’i.”
The normally peaceful neighborhood where shots were fired is at the far end of the Waikiki Beach between the Honolulu Zoo and the famed Diamond Head State Monument, a volcanic crater that looms above Honolulu and is popular with tourists and hikers. A regional park is also nearby.
Ian Felix, a Honolulu resident and combat veteran with medical training, told the AP he happened to be walking by when he saw a woman lying on the ground with a pool of blood coming from her leg. He applied pressure until the first police officer arrived and put a tourniquet on it, Felix said. Moments later two more officers arrived, and Felix said he then heard two gunshots.
He and the officer picked up the wounded woman and carried her into a neighbor’s garage across the street, he said.
According to court records, the man living in Cain’s home was Jaroslav “Jerry” Hanel. Neighbors described him as mentally disturbed.
“Defendant does NOT have a Rental Agreement to occupy the premises and Defendant has no ownership interest in said premises,” read a complaint for eviction that Cain filed last week in court. “Despite repeated demands, Defendant has failed and refused to vacate the premises.”
Attorney Jonathan Burge has represented Hanel since 2015 in various disputes with neighbors, including temporary restraining orders that three obtained against him. Hanel, a native of the Czech Republic who used Czech interpreters in court, faced a hearing next week on a charge of misusing 911 services, Burge said Sunday.
Burge said he never knew Hanel to be violent, but that “he’s kind of a quirky guy and had problems.” Hanel believed the government was watching him and tapping his phone, Burge said.
“Maybe that’s what set him off,” he said of the eviction.
Hanel lived for free at the home in exchange for handyman work, Burge said. Cain was supportive of him in his disputes with the neighbors, Burge said, but their relationship had soured lately because Hanel’s dog had died and Cain wouldn’t let him get a new one.
Nearby resident Dolores Sandvold said she heard screaming and gunshots and saw Cain being carried to an ambulance. She said she was led out of the area and that she had yet to be allowed back into her home.
Kailua resident John Farmer said the fire spread to his sister’s nearby house, which burned down. He said the resident has been described as paranoid and threatening.
Officials across the state began releasing statements mourning the lost lives, with Gov. David Ige saying, “Our entire state mourns the loss of two Honolulu Police officers killed in the line of duty this morning.”
Police closed several streets nearby and asked the public to avoid the area.
The last time a Honolulu police officer was shot and killed in the line of duty was 2003.
Instead of raiding harmless massage parlors between two consenting adults, its about time HPD did real crime work. And this is the result of “easy” picking routine busts with little or no risk. Now faced with a real problem, cops get killed for living the easy life far too long.
Now I can only imagine when stupid legislatures want to make Honolulu a santuary city to harbor illegals, some of which are real terrorists, then see how HPD handles these violent criminals.
Hey Harry: Nice statement of compassion for two police officers who gave their precious lives in the line of duty. Maybe you should take some time off from the little “comments” dungeon you reside in and think about your basically useless comments before you post them.
A 30 year Registered Pharmacist (RPh), has put together over 35 hours of online seminars on the Diseases caused by medical drugs.
Stating that all drugs have 2 reactions. The first being soon after taking and hoped for in the reduction, or masking of symptoms providing relief from symptoms but not removing the cause of the disease sickness or symptoms.
The 2nd reaction a much longer side effect, and is the kind seen on TV ads for doctor prescribed popular common drugs.
The secondary long term side effect of anti-depressants and mood alterating drugs are violence, against one self and also others, as we see in suicide and these irrational insane killings going on in schools, churches, and at Diamond Head.
It would do well to check the killers prescriptions as a cause.
The current opiate/heroin epidemic in America was caused by over prescribing by the medical doctors of opiates forcing the addicted to turn to street heroin after being cut off or unable to pay the doctor visit and opiate prescription or both.
Drugs, chemicals, all have unwanted side effects, some extremely serious. Pharmaceutical drugs and their distributors, are a cause and pause for concern.
Amazing, you see 2 elderly citizens, one on 4 drugs daily, and the other on zero drugs daily for the last 75 years.
The drugged person claiming it is keeping them alive, the other laughing at the ridiculous blind Faith people have in Chemicals.
The seminars claim that anti-depressant drugs cause diabetes for those of you on those drugs. Best maybe is to listen up…!