HILO — Police have wrapped an internal probe into an Aug. 4, 2016, police pursuit of a stolen vehicle in Hilo that concluded with a two-car crash that resulted in the deaths of a 17-year-old boy and a 20-year-old woman in the stolen car and critical injuries to a 39-year-old woman driving the other vehicle.
“An Administrative Review of the incident was conducted and the department determined that there were no violations of departmental policies or procedures,” Police Chief Paul Ferreira wrote in a May 30 letter to Big Island media.
Ferreira said the officer involved in the pursuit, a six-year Hawaii Police Department veteran, is on active duty and assigned to South Hilo Patrol. He said the department “is not at liberty to identify the officer involved in this incident.”
The chief also said that General Order 602, which outlines departmental policies with regard to vehicle pursuits, “is not under review as a result of this incident.”
A requested a copy of General Order 602 from Ferreira’s successor, former Chief Harry Kubojiri, was heavily redacted document. Sections deleted included those related to pursuit procedures.
Also requested were 911 dispatch tapes relating to the pursuit. Those requests were twice denied, on Sept. 19 by Kubojiri and on Jan. 19 by Ferreira, with both letters stating the case is still under investigation and that the tapes would only be provided upon a court order signed by a judge.
Police Maj. Randy Apele of Hilo Operations Bureau said last month a negligent homicide investigation for the fatal crash is still open.
“It’s still being investigated by the Traffic Enforcement Unit,” Apele said last month.
The subject of the investigation is the teenage driver of the stolen sedan, who was killed in the crash and wasn’t publicly identified by police. It has been learned he was Deasd Silva, a Hilo High School student who had been employed as a custodian at Hilo Union Elementary School through Alu Like.
The collision, which occurred on the Mohouli Street Extension, also killed 20-year-old Alicia Andres, a passenger in the stolen sedan.
The driver of the other car, who sustained multiple injuries, was identified in a police log as Robin Cheney of Keaau.
Apele said an investigation into the theft of the vehicle was referred to County Prosecutor Mitch Roth’s office late last year. Roth said the case is still under review.
Police said they received a call at 12:45 p.m. that day from a man who reported his car had been stolen from Kekaulike Street in downtown Hilo and that his friend had been asleep in the car before it was stolen and was possibly abducted by the alleged car thief. It turned out the car owner’s friend had managed to escape as the car was being stolen.
An officer stopped the car at the intersection of Kaumana Drive and the Mohouli Extension. Police said when the officer got out of his car to approach the stolen sedan, the car sped away, turning south onto the Mohouli Extension.
The officer returned to his car, followed the stolen vehicle, lost sight of it momentarily and then encountered two crashed sedans, police said.
The stolen vehicle overturned after striking the other sedan, police said. The collision reportedly occurred at about 1:45 p.m., and police closed a portion of Mohouli for almost five hours.
Andres’ mother, January Andres, said her daughter was a mother with an infant daughter, Dakota. She said Silva, whom she described as a friend of her daughter’s, apparently picked her daughter up down the street from her home, and her daughter wasn’t with Silva when the alleged car theft occurred.
“She was beautiful,” Andres said. “She was hopeful for her future and the future of my granddaughter. I think about her every day. It’s such a loss.”
Andres said she didn’t know if she would pursue a lawsuit over her daughter’s death.
Silva’s mother, Abrajean Pavao, was unable to be reached, and calls to Cheney, were returned by her attorney’s office, which said no suit had been filed or was currently in the works.