A Puna woman police said was with a furlough escapee when he was shot to death by an officer or officers Tuesday in Hilo was charged for allegedly aiding a wanted fugitive. ADVERTISING A Puna woman police said was with
A Puna woman police said was with a furlough escapee when he was shot to death by an officer or officers Tuesday in Hilo was charged for allegedly aiding a wanted fugitive.
Detectives charged 30-year-old Kaiini Febo-Santiago of Pahoa at 10:35 p.m. Thursday with second-degree hindering prosecution, a misdemeanor.
She was released from custody after posting $500 bail.
Febo-Santiago was allegedly driving a Toyota minivan in which 29-year-old Scottie I.K. Yanagawa of Hilo was riding when officers stopped the vehicle late Tuesday night in the Hilo Walmart parking lot.
Police say they ordered the van’s occupants to get out of the vehicle. Yanagawa got out, but fired a shot at officers and was killed in a return volley of gunfire, police said.
Yanagawa, according to police, was wanted for his involvement in a shooting near Honolii beach in Hilo that hospitalized a 31-year-old Kona man, and was also wanted for failing to return from a day pass in the work-furlough program at Hale Nani Reintegration Center in Hilo on Nov. 19.
Yanagawa, who had been sentenced to prison for burglary and felony theft, was the subject of a police wanted bulletin issued Monday that described him as “armed and dangerous.”
An autopsy conducted Thursday determined Yanagawa died from a gunshot wound to the chest, police said.
The four officers who discharged their weapons were placed on paid administrative leave while police conduct criminal and internal administrative investigations into the shooting.
It was the second shooting of an armed fugitive by police in Hilo in a four-day period. Officers shot 38-year-old Ronald Barawis Jr. of Kailua-Kona to death Feb. 5 behind the McDonald’s Restaurant in the Puainako Town Center.
Police say Barawis drove at officers in a 1991 Honda sedan when they ordered him to get out of the car. Several firearms were in the car, police said.
A 28-year-old Mountain View woman who was a passenger in Barawis’ car was shot in the face but survived. She was taken to an Oahu hospital.
Barawis, who was paroled in October after serving a 20-year prison term for shooting at a police officer in Ocean View in 2000, was wanted for violating parole and for allegedly trying to run down a police officer with a car Jan. 20 in Kona.
The three officers who fired at Barawis were also placed on paid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated, police said.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
