Amid spate of shootings, police chief confirms weapons violations are on the rise
This week, there were two separate shootings in a single day. Honolulu Police Chief Joe Logan has confirmed that weapons violations and homicides are on the rise, with both homicides and weapons violations both up from the previous year. Weapons violations have increased by 43% and there have been 54 cases so far this year. Two separate shootings occurred on a single day, one in Ewa Beach and another in Moilili, Hawaii. Councilmember Augie Tulba, representing Ewa Beaches, has called for tougher consequences for gun crimes. It's unclear whether the guns involved in these shootings were registered or not. Despite the high profile incidents, Logan stated that majority of the license to carry license holders were not involved in any of these incidents.
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HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Amid a spate of recent shootings, HPD’s chief confirms that homicides and weapons violations are both up compared to last year.
Honolulu Police Chief Joe Logan said weapons violations have increased by 43% and there have been 54 cases so far this year.
Meanwhile this week, there were two separate shootings in a single day.
On Tuesday, a dispute was caught on camera in the Burger King drive-thru in Ewa Beach.
No one was hurt, but police opened a reckless endangerment investigation.
Later that evening, there was another shooting — in Moilili.
Jeremyal Leedy, 40, allegedly opened fire after he was kicked out of his ex-girlfriend’s apartment at the Kapiolani Banyan.
Councilmember Augie Tulba represents Ewa Beach and said there needs to be tougher consequences for gun crimes.
“You can go on social media and see people pulling out a gun in the daylight, right, or, you know, going on social media to justify your reasoning for taking out a gun,” said Tulba.
“We need to send a clear message that this is not gonna be tolerated.”
It’s unclear whether the guns involved in this week’s shootings were registered or not.
Logan was asked in Wednesday’s Honolulu Police Commission meeting if recent weapons violations are linked at all to registered gun owners.
“By and large, I would say majority of the license to carry are not involved in any of these kinds of incidents,” Logan told commissioners.
Honolulu Police Commission Chair Doug Chin noted that Hawaii has some of the nation’s strictest gun laws.
“If technology is making it easier for people to be able to produce firearms or ... figure out different ways to be able to get away with not having a registered firearm, then those are areas where the laws need to be improved,” he said.
“Even in the chiefs remarks yesterday, he was talking about ways that the organization can continue to be able to adapt and grow so that they can be able to better address some of these different ways the criminals are able to get away with committing crimes, such as being able to produce ghost guns,” said Chin.
Tulba said urgency is needed to address the issue.
“It boils down to what are we doing? What are the consequences to people doing bad things?” she said. “We need to do a better job and we need to get tough.”
No charges have been filed so far against the Kapiolani shooting suspect.
HPD says there’s been no updates or arrests for the Ewa Beach dispute at this time.