Police are seeking a convicted felon they describe as “armed and dangerous” for the Thanksgiving night shooting death of a Hilo man. ADVERTISING Police are seeking a convicted felon they describe as “armed and dangerous” for the Thanksgiving night shooting
Police are seeking a convicted felon they describe as “armed and dangerous” for the Thanksgiving night shooting death of a Hilo man.
The suspect has been identified as 34-year-old Kalani Lono Kaohimaunu. He’s described as 5-feet 10-inches tall, 160 pounds with brown hair. Kaohimaunu was last seen at 9 a.m. Friday at a relative’s home, according to Capt. Robert Wagner of the Hilo Criminal Investigation Division. Wagner said Kaohimaunu was driving a late-model dark blue Honda four-door- sedan, possibly with chrome rims.
“We don’t know whose car that is. It may be his but we don’t know where he got it. We don’t know where he lives, either,” Wagner said Friday afternoon.
Kaohimaunu is the subject of a manhunt in the slaying of 39-year-old Keola Penovaroff outside the victim’s home on Kawailani Street. Police say the shooting was reported at about 10:20 p.m. Thursday and Penovaroff was pronounced dead at 10:57 p.m. at Hilo Medical Center.
Wagner said Kaohimaunu — who according to the state Department of Public Safety website was released from prison March 18 after serving a 10-year term for reckless endangering and a firearms offense — has ties in Kalapana, Waimea and Hilo.
Police caution anyone who sees Kaohimaunu to not approach him, as he is considered armed and dangerous. Anyone who knows his whereabouts is asked to call the police nonemergency line at 935-3311 or Crime Stoppers at 961-8300. A neighbor of Penovaroff’s, who asked not to be identified, said Friday he heard two gunshots late Friday night.
“It didn’t sound like a car backfiring at all,” said the neighbor, who added he doesn’t know either the victim or the suspect. “Then, I heard somebody screaming. It sounded like a woman, but it could have been a high-pitched guy. Then, maybe a minute or two later, you heard Fire Rescue, the ambulance coming.
“The gunshots, they were like 5 to 10 seconds in between, so it wasn’t like a double tap when somebody fires two off in rapid succession. And the second shot sounded slightly less loud than the first, so I thought maybe it was two different calibers or maybe from a different direction. … It was rainy, so maybe the sound was distorted, but, to me, it sounded like a 9 (millimeter) or maybe a .380 (caliber), which made me think maybe the cops were shooting at somebody because 9 is the standard issue. It certainly didn’t sound like, for instance, a .45 (caliber) or a .22 (caliber). It sounded like one of those midrange calibers. It certainly didn’t sound like a shotgun or a rifle. It didn’t sound like there was a lot of gunpowder behind it.”
The neighbor said after he heard the gunshots, his family made a trip to McDonald’s and saw what appeared to be “the whole (police) force” on Kawailani.
“It looked like a Christmas tree with all the blue lights,” he said. “They had all hands on deck. It was a blow-your-mind type of deal. The traffic was backed up and the cops had blocked off the road completely. So we turned around and went down to McDonald’s and got our stuff. On our way back, we were driving on Kilauea and thought we’d just turn up Kawailani if they were done already. And they weren’t. They had the road blocked off by the gas stations and going up.”
Wagner said there were other people at the home at the time of the shooting, and said Kaohimaunu and Penovaroff, who had convictions for felony assault and several counts of auto theft, “knew each other.” He said there was no physical altercation prior to the shooting and didn’t know whether there had been a verbal confrontation,
He said police are working to establish a motive but declined to elaborate on what it might be.
“We have, maybe not a motive, but we have information that leads us in a couple of directions as far as motive.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune
-herald.com.
