Kona officer honored for response to assault

The Kona Crime Prevention Committee saluted Kona Patrol Officer Erich Jackson as Officer of the Month for January during a luncheon ceremony Wednesday at Huggo’s restaurant in Kailua-Kona.

Jackson, who was promoted to sergeant in November, was honored for interrupting a felony attack in progress. Shortly after 2 a.m. on July 27, a man flagged Jackson down in Kailua-Kona and told him a woman was being assaulted. Jackson followed the concerned citizen and witnessed a man holding a woman above his head while choking her.

When Jackson identified himself as a police officer and ordered the assailant to stop, the man slammed the woman onto a cement walkway, grabbed her cellular telephone and smashed it into a rock wall.

As Jackson was checking on the welfare of the victim, the assailant jumped into the ocean and swam away. When the man returned to shore, Jackson confronted him and persuaded him to surrender peacefully. Jackson charged the man with several offenses, including felony abuse of a family/household member.

Sgt. David Araki, who nominated Jackson for the award, said Jackson has “an uncompromising determination” to make the community safer.

“Because of Officer Jackson’s immediate and fearless intervention, I believe he prevented a much more serious and irreparable tragic act,” Araki said in nomination papers. “His unwavering dedication toward helping those in need couldn’t have been highlighted better than when he came to the aid of the woman who was experiencing her darkest hour.”

The Kona Crime Prevention Committee is an organization that encourages community involvement in aiding and supporting police in West Hawaii.