“The fact it did get forwarded to the Prosecutor’s Office for evaluation, that’s a good sign that the chief and his leadership team are holding people in the department accountable.”
PEARL CITY, Hawaii (KHON2) — It’s been 15 months since a man was fatally shot and killed by Honolulu Police after he grabbed a police officer’s unattended rifle during a standoff in Pearl City.
Police officials said the unattended rifle case is now part of a criminal investigation which was forwarded to the Prosecutor’s Office in August.
“The fact it did get forwarded to the Prosecutor’s Office for evaluation, that’s a good sign that the chief and his leadership team are holding people in the department accountable,” said Honolulu Police Commission Chair Doug Chin. “Because if they do something like that, that means more eyes are going to be looking at the facts of the investigation and whether there are any criminal charges to be brought.”
HPD said the case is also still under administrative investigation.
Chin said the Prosecutor’s Office and administration will be looking at whether the office followed proper policies and procedures such as how to handle a firearm, and whether any criminal laws were violated.
“One of the conclusions the Prosecutor’s Office might come up with is there are no criminal charges, that there might be a justification, or it might be the opposite and the officer who left the firearm unattended could be held responsible,” Chin explained.
KHON2 asked HPD for details about the officer involved but hasn’t heard back.
Less than two weeks after the shooting, Chief Joe Logan said the officer who left his firearm unattended was back on the job.
The commission asked Chief Logan how something like this happened, and if it was a one-time incident or if it’s happened before.
“At this time I don’t think the commission was looking at if any policies need to be changed, it was more was this a one-time event? If so, what kind of responsibility or liability do we need to assign to the people who are involved,” Chin added.
The Prosecutor’s Office said it doesn’t comment on cases or disclose the existence or status of investigations.
The report regarding the shooting is not publicly available because HPD said it’s part of the criminal and administrative investigation. Despite it being 15 months since the incident happened, HPD said there is still no timeframe on when the administrative investigation will be completed.