Peter Cyrus Grammer, 26, a man from Mountain View on Hawaiʻi Island, was shot on August 25, 2020, in the middle of a bright afternoon on North Kulani Road. Just before 1 p.m., police were dispatched to reports of a man down in the roadway, and responders found him gravely wounded. He was rushed to Hilo Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 2:04 p.m. An autopsy later determined he died from a gunshot wound to the chest, and investigators classified the death as a homicide.
As the scene settled into shock, detectives quickly focused on a suspect: Dwayne “CJ” Cory Wallace Jr. of Puna. A public alert went out the day of the killing, warning that Wallace should be considered armed and dangerous and asking for help locating him. Three days later, on August 28, officers tracked him to the Orchidland area. Police located the vehicle they believed he was driving, and when they moved in, he fled into brush and trees before emerging and surrendering. Authorities reported he was armed when they found him, and later accounts say he had a loaded shotgun at the time of arrest.
Investigative documents described the killing as the violent end of a domestic conflict that spiraled onto the roadway. According to an arrest record summarized in local reporting, Wallace told police that his sister, Krystal Kahalioumi—Grammer’s girlfriend—pushed him toward the shooting after an argument earlier that day. After a confrontation on North Kulani Road, the account says Kahalioumi asked whether he was ready to shoot Grammer. The documents described Grammer’s mother driving with her son, realizing they were being followed, and then stopping when Wallace pulled ahead and blocked the road. In that telling, Grammer stepped forward with empty hands raised, and Wallace retrieved a 20-gauge pump-action shotgun from his vehicle. The first trigger pull failed because the safety was on; then the safety came off, and the second shot struck Grammer “center mass.” The account says Wallace left the scene immediately afterward, taking the spent shell.
Kahalioumi, named in those accounts as a key figure in the events leading up to the shooting, was sought for questioning in the homicide investigation. On September 10, 2020, police arrested her in Hilo after locating her in a stolen vehicle; they reported she tried to flee and struck an unmarked police car before the vehicle was disabled. She was charged with a list of offenses that included first-degree theft, unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle, criminal property damage, assault against a law enforcement officer, and drug-related charges, and police noted she had been sought for questioning in connection with her boyfriend’s killing.
The case against Wallace moved from manhunt to prosecution and, ultimately, a guilty plea. In March 2021, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, and in May 2021 a judge in Hilo sentenced him to life in prison with the possibility of parole, with a mandatory minimum of 15 years before he can be considered for release. He also pleaded guilty to a firearm-possession charge; reporting said the court ordered additional prison time tied to the revocation of felony probation, and prosecutors described the killing as happening in broad daylight in front of Grammer’s mother. At sentencing, the courtroom accounts emphasized both the immediacy of the violence and the lingering devastation for the family, while the judge pointed to Wallace’s criminal history and the fact that, even after the first misfire gave him a moment to stop, he chose to shoot anyway.
