Police said Tuesday that Christopher R. Kapua-Allison, a Hawaii Police Department officer who shot his estranged wife and then himself in a murder-suicide Sunday at the officer’s Mountain View home, had been the subject of a criminal investigation into an alleged domestic violence incident.
According to Capt. Randall Medeiros of the Hilo Criminal Investigation Division, a neighbor called police to the Kini Street home in Pacific Paradise Gardens subdivision in 2014. Medeiros said the incident “was investigated thoroughly, and was closed (as) unfounded.”
Medeiros said Kapua-Allison’s wife, Jolene-Rae K. Kapua-Allison, was the alleged victim.
Autopsies conducted Tuesday confirmed the 50-year-old officer, a veteran of 11 1/2 years on the force, shot his 54-year-old estranged wife and then himself. Both died as the result of a single gunshot wound to the head, the autopsies found. The manner of death for Jolene-Rae Kapua-Allison was determined to be homicide, while the manner of death for Christopher Kapua-Allison was determined to be suicide.
“His service weapon was recovered at the scene,” Medeiros said. “We’ll be doing some analysis of its ballistics, but it does appear it was his service weapon is what was used.”
The officer, who received an Officer of the Month citation in 2010 for helping negotiate a peaceful resolution to an armed standoff and was honored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving in 2011, 2012 and 2013 for his record of impaired-driving arrests, was assigned to the Kona Traffic Enforcement Unit.
Jolene-Rae Kapua-Allison worked for J. Hara Store in Kurtistown and Robert’s Hawaii.
Medeiros said he couldn’t go into any internal disciplinary or personnel matters regarding the officer, but said about the Sunday incident, “I don’t think anybody could’ve anticipated this.”
Detectives with the Hilo Criminal Investigation Section are continuing to investigate the murder-suicide.
Anyone with information is asked to call the police nonemergency line at 935-3311, Crime Stoppers at 961-8300 or to contact Detective Jesse Kerr at 961-2379 or jesse.kerr@hawaiicounty.gov.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
