Puna man charged in incident that injured officer

A Puna man has been charged in connection with a Monday morning traffic stop that left a Hawaii Police Department officer injured. A second man was charged for trying to prevent the first man’s arrest.

At 3 p.m. Monday, officers went to a house on the 500 block of East Kahaopea Street in Hilo to arrest a possible suspect, 20-year-old Draven Torres-Souza of Keaʻau, on unrelated outstanding warrants. While police were attempting to arrest him on the warrants, he caused minor injuries to two officers. At the same time, 22-year-old Joshua Domen of Hilo tried to prevent a third officer from making the arrest. None of the officers required treatment.

Both men were arrested and taken to the Hilo police cellblock, where Torres-Souza was charged with failure to appear, contempt of court and violating terms of release on bail. On Tuesday, Torres-Souza appeared in court for the warrants and was then taken to Hawaii Community Correctional Center while detectives continued the investigation into the other incidents.

Detectives determined that Torres-Souza had been the operator of a sedan that collided with a police vehicle shortly after midnight Monday in the “Isles” parking lot off Lihiwai Street as officers were trying to stop the car. After the collision, Torres-Souza fled on foot. One of the officers in that collision was treated at Hilo Medical Center and released.

At 8 p.m. Tuesday, Torres-Souza was charged with resisting an order to stop, first-degree criminal property damage, driving without a license, leaving the scene of an accident involving substantial bodily injury, and three counts of assaulting a police officer. His bail was set at $67,000.

Domen was charged with first-degree hindering prosecution. His bail was set at $2,000.

Both men were scheduled to make their initial court appearances on those charges Wednesday afternoon.