DS Agent Arrested In Honolulu Shooting Incident

Photo: Honolulu Star-Advertiser











Truly, nothing good happens after 2AM.

Here's a local press report on the arrest of a DS Agent in Honolulu in the early hours of last Saturday, Federal agent from mainland arrested for killing man in Waikiki:

A U.S. State Department law enforcement agent from the mainland was arrested early Saturday on suspicion of fatally shooting a Windward Oahu man at the Kuhio Avenue McDonald's in Waikiki.

Honolulu police identified the alleged shooter as Christopher W. Deedy, 27, and sources who asked to remain anonymous confirmed that he is a federal agent who was off-duty at the time of the incident. The victim was identified by family and friends as Kailua resident Kollin K. Elderts, 23, a Kalaheo High School graduate.

State Department officials refused to confirm that Deedy was here in connection with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference that begins Tuesday.

-- snip --

Reached in Washington Saturday night, a State Department spokeswoman said only, "We are aware of the incident and we cannot comment on an ongoing investigation."

-- snip --

Police said four males got into a confrontation and the victim suffered a single gunshot wound. Paramedics took him to the Queen's Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Deedy had not been charged as of Saturday night and was at the main police cell block on South Beretania Street.

-- snip --

YELLOW CRIME TAPE blocked off the entrance to the normally crowded McDonald's, which is usually open 24 hours a day and is one of the few places late-night visitors to Waikiki can have a cheap bite before going home after a night of partying. Signs on the front doors said it would reopen for business today.

Keo Evans, a bartender at Lojax at Kuhio and Seaside, said he was just leaving work when he heard two or three shots, and then screaming, coming from the McDonald's.

A man wearing a collared shirt ran from the restaurant, heading in the Ewa direction, Evans said. Inside McDonald's, Evans said, a man was holding on to the victim, trying to keep him from collapsing.

"There was already a big crowd of people out there (in front of McDonald's)," Evans said, noting that was unusual. Usually the early-morning action in the neighborhood occurs one block Diamond Head in front of the Waikiki Trade Center, notorious for fights after bars and discos in the building close, he said.

A Honolulu television station had this bit of further information in a story Sunday morning:

Police say 23 year-old Kollin was with a group inside the McDonalds on Kuhio Avenue. Witnesses tell KHON2 Kollin appeared to have been drinking and calling people derogatory names. Police say he got into an altercation with Christopher Deedy, an off-duty U.S. State Department special agent, and was shot.

Bearing in mind that initial reports are usually wrong, or at least incomplete, it looks like we know this much about what happened: some drunken local yoots were trash-talking in the only fast food place that stays open after most of the Waikiki bars have closed, when a haole came in [check out the reader comments after the Honolulu TV story for local sentiments toward those Caucasian outsiders], leading to an "altercation" in which Deedy drew his duty weapon and fired a round into Elderts.

Was the shooting justified, i.e., was Deedy acting in self-defense? Possibly. Even if the victim and his posse were unarmed - and the news reports do not mention anyone other than Deddy being armed - there were at least three of them, and they could have given Deedy reason to believe he was in danger.

More to come.