Police say a 59-year-old Papaaloa man shot and killed on his property Saturday by a police officer pointed a crossbow at all three officers who responded to a report of a disturbance there.
The 24-year police veteran who fired the shot or shots that killed Gene Bernhardt was placed on paid administrative leave by the department, as were the other two responding North Hilo officers.
“We don’t know how long they’ll be on leave,” Capt. Randall Medeiros of the Hilo Criminal Investigation Section said Monday.
The names of the officers were not released by police.
Three separate terroristic threatening investigations were opened by police because Bernhardt allegedly threatened the three officers.
Asked whether the threats were verbal or if it was for allegedly pointing the crossbow at the officers, Medeiros replied, “I can’t say exactly what the nature of the threats are at this point. But the threats, whether they were said or implied, were directed at the officers.”
Medeiros said the officer who discharged his weapon fired three shots. Medeiros said an autopsy Wednesday will determine how many of those shots hit Bernhardt.
Police responded because a neighbor called about a blocked driveway, Medeiros said.
Bernhardt’s wife, Kyra Pauli Bernhardt, told the Tribune-Herald on Sunday she called police Saturday to ask them to check on her husband, saying he had texted her about a gray SUV with three men and a woman, one of whom pointed a gun.
“She may have called. I don’t know; I cannot confirm that. But I can tell you that’s not the reason that the officers responded,” Medeiros said.
Bernhardt filed a petition for a temporary restraining order last year against then-Chief Harry Kubojiri and “all persons working under him.”
The TRO request was denied without prejudice — which means Bernhardt was free to refile the petition — on March 16, 2016, by Hilo District Judge Harry Freitas, who found “insufficient evidence to amount to a probable cause to believe that an act or acts of harassment have occurred as defined (by law).”
The filing included a copy of a letter to Kubojiri dated March 14, 2016, claiming Bernhardt was “terrified for my life,” a copy of a letter to Gov. David Ige dated May 30, 2015, and information submitted as part of a complaint to the Hawaii County Police Commission on Oct. 16, 2015.
Bernhardt identified himself as a 100-percent disabled retired Navy chief master-at-arms of 23 years who suffered from, among other things, post-traumatic stress disorder.
He claimed to have been harassed on Memorial Day, May 25, 2015, at Keahole International Airport in Kailua-Kona when his ride failed to arrive for a late flight the previous evening. Bernhardt alleged he was rousted by airport security who accused him of trespassing at what he said was a public bus stop on Kupipi Street in the early morning hours. He said when security personnel deemed him uncooperative and called Kona police, he was given the choice of leaving or being arrested.
According to Bernhardt’s filing, he was weakened by flu-like symptoms from the flight and collapsed in a nearby ditch on Kupipi Street. He said an unidentified county police officer drove by and yelled “I’m going to come back and kick your f——— ass” at him as he lay in the ditch, but Bernhardt’s wife found him there before officers returned.
Bernhardt also claimed to have been threatened by North Hilo officers on March 1, 2016, after a truck he was driving with a load of cinders broke down while climbing a steep grade toward his Papaaloa Road home. He said he was ordered by police to move the disabled truck in an unsafe manner to keep it from blocking a neighbor’s driveway.
Bernhardt said one officer told him “I am going to come get you” and another said “I am going to get my buddies to come get you” while both officers, identified in the filings as James Cameros and Garrett Hatada, supposedly patted their sidearms.
In another alleged incident, Bernhardt claimed he was falsely accused of stealing a diesel tank by Officer Robert Silva, for which Bernhardt said he had a receipt showing he purchased it for $900.
The Tribune-Herald was unable to determine if any of the officers Bernhardt alleged had previously threatened or harassed him were involved in Saturday’s incident.
In the letter to Kubojiri, Bernhardt accused the former chief of unwillingness to view a 20-second iPad video of the Kona airport incident, and said the chief was more concerned about Bernhardt’s agitation and his use of profanity than alleged unprofessional behavior by officers.
“We are talking threats by armed police & their friends to cause me bodily harm and/or death, and great fear … and your primary concern was voice level and words like ‘damn,’” Bernhardt wrote. “… At no point did you assure me your police officers would not carry through on threats made, real or perceived.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
