A South Hilo patrol officer shot at a suspect during a late-night incident Wednesday in the Panaewa area of Hilo.
According to police, officers spotted a Toyota Tacoma they suspected was stolen when the pickup truck and another vehicle fled from them. Police say the driver of the truck drove toward one of the officers, who jumped out of its path to avoid being hit.
The officers gave chase until the Tacoma ran over an embankment on a dirt road off Stainback Highway. The officers reportedly gave verbal commands to the driver, the truck’s lone occupant, in order to take him into custody, when the man allegedly reached into the truck and pulled out what appeared to be a long, dark object, according to police.
One of the officers fired approximately 11 shots at the suspect, who disappeared into the bushes, apparently uninjured. Officers found no trace of the suspect, police said.
Police Capt. Randall Medeiros, commander of the Hilo Criminal Investigation Division, on Thursday said the officer thought the object might be a firearm. He said officers didn’t find a firearm at the scene but recovered ammunition from the truck.
Police say the two occupants of the second vehicle also approached officers a short time after the shots were fired. The driver, identified as 34-year-old Wailani Kenui of Hilo, was arrested on suspicion of reckless endangering. He was released from custody pending further investigation Thursday afternoon, Medeiros said.
The other man, who was not suspected of criminal wrongdoing, was allowed to leave on foot, Medeiros said.
Police say investigators want to question 41-year-old Shilo Murdock Brent of Puna in regard to the investigation. Asked if officers think Brent was the driver of the Tacoma, Medeiros replied, “We can’t rule it out.”
Brent, who also has an active arrest warrant for contempt of court, has been the subject of wanted bulletins by police on Jan. 24 and April 23.
According to police, the officer who fired the shots is a 10-year police veteran. He’s been placed on paid administrative leave, a standard practice in any officer-involved shooting, pending the outcome of an administrative investigation by the Office of Professional Standards, the department’s internal affairs unit.
Hilo Criminal Investigations Section detectives also are conducting a criminal investigation into the shooting.
Police ask that anyone with information about the incident or Brent’s whereabouts call the department’s nonemergency line at 935-3311 or Crime Stoppers at 961-8300.
Wednesday’s incident is the second time in 2018 a Hawaii Police Department officer or officers fired shots at a suspect.
On May 21, two Puna patrol officers, identified in court documents as Bryson Miyose and Paul Wright III, reportedly fired a total of 13 shots at 32-year-old Joseph Paul “JP” Branco of Puna on Waimaka O Pele Road between Kopua Farm Lot and Fern Acres in upper Puna.
Police say Branco, who also was a subject of the two previously mentioned wanted bulletins, tried to run over Miyose and Wright in a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck reported stolen on April 27 from the State Building parking lot in Hilo.
The truck stopped short of the officers, and Branco, who wasn’t hit, was arrested without further incident.
According to Medeiros, Brent’s and Branco’s appearances in the same two wanted dispatches are coincidental.
There were four incidents last year in which Hawaii Police Department officers discharged weapons. In three incidents, no one was injured by gunfire. In the fourth, an officer fatally shot 59-year-old Gene Bernhardt of Papaaloa, who allegedly confronted officers with a loaded crossbow who were responding to a call to his property March 29.
There were five police-involved shooting incidents in 2016, all resulting in fatalities. One of those shootings also critically injured a woman inside a car with a male suspect who was shot to death.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.