A man surrendered peacefully in Waianae on Sunday after he shot at officers during a pursuit in a stolen car and hid in a friend’s house for hours while officers swarmed the building with high-powered rifles, police said.
The episode lasted more than 17 hours and ended without police firing any shots and no injuries. Numerous residents, however, were displaced from their homes, and some went to a Red Cross shelter for evacuees in Waianae District Park.
The suspect was taken into police custody at about 4 p.m. at the Waimaha-Sunflower state housing project on Mill Street. He was arrested for investigation of first-degree attempted murder, auto theft, fleeing the scene of a crash and firearm offenses.
Lt. Trent Umeno of the Kapolei/Waianae district said police first came into contact with the man during a traffic stop at about
10:35 p.m. Saturday along the Waianae-bound lanes of the H-1 freeway between Ewa and Makakilo.
The suspect fled in the car, and police spotted it again on Farrington Highway several minutes later. Police attempted to stop the driver because the car was stolen, and a pursuit began, during which the man fired several shots at multiple police vehicles on Farrington Highway in Waianae, Umeno said.
Video of the vehicle being towed away showed at least three bullet holes in the rear windshield and another hole in the front passenger window.
The vehicle pursuit ended when the man crashed into a fence and fire hydrant on Waianae Valley Road, then got out and ran into a friend’s apartment in the Waimaha-Sunflower complex, Umeno said.
Umeno said two women and a man were in the home at the time, and two of them left the apartment overnight. The other man left the apartment at about 1 p.m. Sunday, leaving the suspect alone until his arrest.
Umeno said it was unclear whether the three people in the home were considered hostages. He said some residents from the building were asked to leave for their safety.
Brenda Kekaha, a resident two floors above the unit where the standoff occurred, said being unable to return home made her feel like a hostage.
“It’s like we’re hostages, too,” she said while sitting on a staircase across the street Sunday afternoon. “It’s ridiculous.”
She said he son informed her about the incident at about 2 a.m., and she left her home out of fear that she might get caught in the crossfire. When she tried to go back later in the day, police wouldn’t let her, she said.
Residents said the suspect’s family members were at the complex and could be heard talking on the phone to him, trying to calm him down.
One man said his son was the other person in the home and was able to get out safely by walking out when the suspect turned his back.
Police barricaded both ends of the block during the standoff, scuttling Derwyn Ujano’s plans to drive around the island with his wife.
He said he couldn’t leave because he couldn’t drive out of his parking lot.
“It’s kind of a bummer,” he said.
Annabelle Sanchez was waiting across the street to go back home after running errands. She said she was surprised by the amount of officers in militarylike uniforms with rifles and dogs.
As channels of water flowed down the road from a broken water main, Sanchez said there were also snipers on the roof of a restaurant behind the building.
“It’s like a war going on,” she said. “We don’t expect this kind of situation in our neighborhood. It’s shocking.”
