Bronson Kaimana Kaliloa, 46, a Native Hawaiian man from Mountain View on Hawaiʻi Island, was working the night of July 17, 2018, when a routine call turned into something far darker. Close to 9:30 p.m., he and other Hawaiʻi County police officers converged on Highway 11 near Kukui Camp Road for a high-risk traffic stop tied to a wanted fugitive. In the headlights and roadside glare, as officers moved in, the driver suddenly got out and opened fire with a handgun, striking Kaliloa in the neck
and leg. Fellow officers shot back as the gunman vanished into thick brush along the highway, leaving behind a stunned scene and a frantic race to save him.
Kaliloa was rushed to Hilo Medical Center, where he died shortly after midnight, in the early hours of July 18. The shooting set off an intense island-wide manhunt, with officers called in from days off and the public warned to stay alert. Police publicly identified the suspect as Justin Joshua Waiki, who was already wanted on a no-bail warrant, and the search quickly became a statewide focus; the FBI announced a reward for information leading to his arrest as authorities tried to tighten the net around him.
For several days, Waiki remained out of reach, a presence more imagined than seen—somewhere in the rural stretches of the island as checkpoints and patrols multiplied. The standoff ended on July 20, 2018, at South Point, where officers were working a vehicle checkpoint when an SUV carrying people associated with Waiki tried to pass through. As a Special Response Team member opened the rear hatch, Waiki emerged from beneath a blanket and shot the officer. Police returned fire immediately, killing Waiki and wounding another person in the vehicle; the injured officer survived. In the aftermath, those in the SUV were taken into custody as investigators worked backward through the days Waiki spent on the run, trying to determine who helped him move, hide, and stay supplied.
That search for accountability did not stop with Waiki's death. In August 2018, Hawaiʻi Island police announced that a grand jury had handed up indictments targeting people alleged to have assisted Waiki after the shooting. Bench warrants were served and arrests followed, including Kiel Brende, who police said had fled to Washington State and was arrested with help from U.S. Marshals, the FBI, and local agencies. Others taken into custody included Taumi Carr of Puna and Mokihana Veincent of Waimea; police also reported that Jorge Pagan-Torres, Krystle Ferreira, and Malia Lajala were already in custody and were processed on the warrants. Brende, Carr, and Veincent were charged with first-degree hindering prosecution and conspiracy, and Veincent additionally faced two counts related to firearms possession. Ferreira, Pagan-Torres, and Lajala were charged as accomplices to attempted first-degree murder, along with charges including place to keep a firearm, conspiracy to commit first-degree hindering prosecution, and first-degree hindering prosecution; Lajala also faced a charge of third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug. Police said a seventh indicted person remained hospitalized at the time and had not yet been taken into custody, and investigators continued seeking additional individuals they wanted to speak with as they mapped out the support network that had surrounded Waiki during the manhunt.
