William James Dahlin Jr., a 49-year-old Native Hawaiian man from Honolulu, was out late at the 2012 Sports Bar & Grill in the McCully area when a tense argument inside the bar tipped into a violent confrontation in the early hours of July 19, 2023. Witness accounts described the dispute turning physical, with Dahlin striking Myron Young Takushi in the face before other patrons tried to pull them apart.
Instead of ending there, prosecutors later alleged Takushi reached into a fanny pack, produced an unregistered Glock handgun, and fired repeatedly, hitting Dahlin multiple times amid the chaos of the crowded room. 
Honolulu police and emergency crews rushed in to find Dahlin unresponsive on the floor. CPR was started while the bar’s noise and confusion gave way to sirens and shouted instructions, and Dahlin was transported to The Queen’s Medical Center. Dahlin was pronounced dead at about 1:15 a.m., and the city medical examiner later ruled the death a homicide caused by gunshot wounds to the torso. Investigators reported recovering spent 9mm shell casings at the scene, and authorities said at least two witnesses positively identified Takushi as the shooter. Prosecutors also alleged that as Dahlin’s girlfriend moved toward Dahlin in the aftermath, Takushi pointed the gun at her from close range before fleeing. 
Later that same day, police located and arrested Takushi without incident in Kapahulu, after officers observed Takushi getting out of a white Lexus in front of an apartment complex on the 3000 block of Lakimau Street. The case quickly moved from a frantic overnight shooting investigation to a courtroom fight over charges and detention: Takushi was held at the Oahu Community Correctional Center, with bail set at $1 million. 
Within a week, the legal allegations sharpened. A grand jury indicted Takushi, charging second-degree murder and first-degree terroristic threatening, along with weapons offenses that included carrying a firearm in the commission of a separate felony. Prosecutors framed the shooting as a deadly escalation of a bar dispute made far more lethal by the presence of a gun, and the charges positioned the case for trial, with second-degree murder carrying the possibility of life in prison with parole if convicted. 
Away from the courthouse, Dahlin’s death echoed through the local entertainment community because of Dahlin’s work on NCIS: Hawai’i, where Dahlin had been credited as a background actor and crew member. Months later, the series publicly memorialized Dahlin with an on-screen tribute, underscoring how the shooting had cut across both the nightlife where it happened and the professional circles where Dahlin had built friendships and a reputation for showing up, day after day, as part of a working set. 
