Excellent work by Gordon Y.K. Pang and Michael Tsai, along with Craig Gima and Rob Shikina, in pulling together lots of information on the fatal shooting involving a federal agent in Honolulu for APEC. Their article appears in today’s Star-Advertiser.
They were able to background the alleged shooter through online sources while official sources remained silent, and combine those details with on the ground reporting.
They also captured an incredible scene at the victim’s home, where friends lash out at “the (expletive) haole.”
Outside Elderts’ Kuaaina Way house Saturday night, about two dozen young men gathered to remember their fallen friend. Stunned and angry, they stood in the front yard and exchanged what scant information they had about the incident over beers and blasting reggae.
“The (expletive) haole wen’ kill Kollin,” said one young man who declined to identify himself. “That’s what happened.”
With all the political, administrative, and hired firepower in Honolulu to manage APEC, why wasn’t their damage control team on this case immediately? Why were they hiding behind “no comment” instead of having someone prominent at the victim’s home to apologize to his family? Instead of a tragic incident, this becomes the first defining moment of this APEC meeting.
In any case, the story was a great example of the new tools available to reporters.
The “alleged shooter” was identified as a federal agent by an anonymous source.
State Department officials refused to confirm that Deedy was here in connection with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference that begins Tuesday.
But reporters turned to his LinkedIn page for confirmation. Google quickly founded a description in his LinkedIn profile.
![[text]](http://ilind.net/images_2011/deedy-linked.jpg)
But when I tried the link this morning, it had already been removed.
![[text]](http://ilind.net/images_2011/deedy-linked-gone.jpg)
They then turned to the State Department web site for a description of the Diplomatic Security Service, where he was employed.
Then another online find.
In an interview online as an alumnus of the Fund for American Studies, Deedy described himself as a special agent assigned to the Washington field office, with two primary duties: criminal investigations and working on personal protection details.
The result was a pretty good background on the young agent despite official silence.
I immediately thought that if he had been part of a foreign delegation, he probably might have been able to claim diplomatic immunity. I’m guessing this doesn’t apply to a U.S. agent on American soil, but don’t know for sure.
A friend with a business nearby commented that this was another case of someone bringing their big city attitudes to our small town. “Here we just punch them,” he said.
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This was indeed shocking and I hope we can all keep cool head until all the facts are revealed. I also hope that the Feds and all concerned are completely transparent on their investigation and the findings so we don’t create an us vs. them attitude for the APEC visitors. Finally, kudos to the StarAd (I never thought I’d say that!) on getting info despite an apparent initial stone wall.
Considering that the SA reporters put this together on a Saturday, when newsrooms are heavily understaffed, mucho kudos in this case.
Interesting to see how well Civil Beat will do with second-day reporting — they need to produce.
And most importantly, the distraught feelings of people connected to the man who was shot to death are very understandable.
BUT let’s hope that observers realize that the “(expletive) haole,” country vs. town approach serves no larger benefit.
“Civil Beat with second-day reporting” sounds like it’s a marginalized media outfit. I disagree with Tim’s premise.
In the first place, Civil Beat is not an ambulance-chaser outfit.
I don’t mind Civil Beat researching and asking lots of questions before producing a careful report to the public.
Lighten up.
Sometimes Civil Beat breaks a story and other media outlets follow with second-day reporting.
Sometimes Star-Advertiser breaks a story and other media outlets follow with second-day reporting.
Sometimes KITV breaks a story and other media outlets follow with second-day reporting.
And sometimes people get way too defensive over absolutely nothing. This emotional, parent-like approach achieves nothing.
This time around, Civil Beat is still in follow-up mode. Oh well. Deal with it and lighten up.
I’m very lightened up. There is nothing heavy about disagreeing.
I’m very willing to wait and see for facts to be explored and confirmed on this case. We don’t know what happened; it could be several locals vs one visitor.
I am a Civil Beat supporter, to give Hawaii more reporting. So I am somehow “marginalized” against Civil Beat? This makes zero sense. Sorry, I’m not into arguing over nothing just for the sake of arguing. Feel free to keep commenting.
I am deeply disappointed with Civil Beat for its non-reportage on this incident. (Also, I could not find anything on the “All Hawaii News” blog.)
The focus on local “public affairs”, which fortunately involves in depth analysis, seems to preclude many local current events. This is exacerbated by CB’s limit budget, which itself might be seen to be due to their rather puritanical and perhaps arrogant scorn of advertising. This, coupled with their publication of articles by the likes of a Cold War dinosaur like Richard Halloran and editorials by members of Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE), makes me ill. I have not read the Star Advertiser since 2010, but CB is still such a self-righteous amateur job.
But Civil Beat doesn’t aim at full breaking news coverage, and it’s unrealistic to expect them to do so. They aim to fill a different niche, and an important one.
I will agree that Hallopran is a sorry excuse for a foreign policy analyst, but what is your objection to commentaries from FACE? FACE has emerged as one of the few local organizations mobilizing public opinion around issues of economic justice. They are based in Christian churches, but that should not blind you to the good work they are actually doing.
As my mama taught me long ago, just because someone is a Christian does not mean they cannot be a good human being.
Newspapers are full of “filler”, like sports and movie reviews and so forth, but CB uses Halloran and FACE for filler. I don’t have a problem with their point of view or ideology (or anyone else’s ideology). The problem is that they seem, at least to me, to be “rather uninformed”, to put it diplomatically.
There is a famous book by Henry Kissinger entitled “Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy”. It is deeply flawed and out of date, but it is brilliant. If CB published things like that which I disagreed with completely but which were brilliant, I would not complain.
It’s not an ideology thing. It’s a mediocrity thing.
I am curious about why this is described as a murder investigation rather than a homicide investigation. A homicide can be determined to be justified or unjustified. An unjustified homicide can also be murder. Indicating that murder charges are pending certainly puts a different tone on things. I hope the police and the media are at least deliberate in their descriptions rather than just being arbitrary. If there intent is to call it murder, then that is fine. But I guess we will see when the facts come out.
The charge is second degree murder.
Sure are a lot of people jumping to conclusions.
OK, maybe you can demonstrate how we should regard the shooting. What conditions can you envision which would justify the shooting? And not just one shot, but two, then a pause and a third?
Under what conditions do YOU believe “deadly force” is justified and how can you contort the known facts to support such a claim?
Some people make mistakes by “jumping to conclusions.” Others, by refusing to face up to the facts.
The point is to wait for the facts before diving into the debate. Especially over death. Complete facts that don’t exist yet. This point doesn’t get much clearer. ‘Nuff said for now.
The style of shooting that you describe has become standard training and is known as the “Mozambique Drill”. It is second nature to a well-trained professional.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambique_Drill
“The Mozambique Drill, also known as the Failure to Stop Drill, or Failure Drill, is a close-quarter shooting technique in which the shooter fires twice into the torso of a target (known as a double tap to the center of mass), momentarily assesses the hits, then follows them up with a carefully aimed shot to the head of the target. The third shot should be aimed to destroy the brain or brain stem, killing the target and preventing the target from retaliating.”
Here’s a demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuQKr2AkKDU&NR=1
Here’s a famous movie scene from “Collateral” starring Tom Cruise as Vincent, a military-trained assassin, showing how the Mozambique Drill looks in practice (in LA). It’s completely instinctual and automatic to a professional.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmKR6evZRQQ
Ouch.
That’s probably close to what actually happened.
Yes, I can. I can spin endless possibilities and hypotheticals. But that’s irrelevant. We have a criminal justice system and the facts have yet to come out. We don’t need a bunch of fools running around screaming for the federal agent’s head until we know what happened. Given a knife and given a fight, there are many scenarios in which this shooting could be perfectly justifiable. But I don’t know and neither do you.
Ian, Thanks for getting on this story. On congrats to the S-A reporters for their digging.
I reject the idea this is a “big city” type of behavior. This shooting suggests the State Department has some severely under-trained and unqualified gunmen in their employ.
That State and the APEC organizers could bring such an armed, dangerous man into our community and expose our people to risk is troubling. This killing reflects badly on the feds, but also upon our “City Fathers,” who have welcomed this APEC monstrosity into our community with unsupported claims how it will “benefit” all of us.
These APEC leaders are kleptocrats from the entire Asia-Pacific region and I bear them no aloha. And whatever positive feelings I have had for our State Department are feeling severely strained at this moment. Millions spent on the security, and CONVENIENCE–of the APEC kleptocrats and their lackeys, but NO safeguards are in place to protect our people from their gunmen?
I hope there is a lot of yelling going on behind the scenes. This murder cannot be allowed to go unpunished. What a bad– but maybe fitting– way for APEC to reveal itself to our people.
This “armed dangerous man” graduated from a very good university, completed one of the hardest interships in the U.S. Then he went through some of the most difficult and demanding training you will find to become a federal agent. If anything he is one of our country’s elite.
As a part-Hawaiian born and raised in Kaneohe, I have witnessed too many confrontations where a haole is intimidated and sucker-punched and/or assaulted, ESPECIALLY where alcohol is involved and other friends nearby. Unfortunately for the local, this haole was packing “heat”.
IMHO, if the “sidearm” were visible or if the deceased and friends new that he was a federal agent with a weapon this wouldn’t have escalated to a shooting. Without knowing the facts, unless this haole was really drunk or high it seems unlikely he would draw his weapon and fire unless he really felt threatened.
You need to walk a mile in this haole’s shoes before convicting him and exonerating the locals involved. You may be eating your words if facts prove otherwise.
This 30 year malahini haole has to agree with you: we don’t know all the facts, yet — shoots, we know hardly any of them — and it seems extremeely unlikely that a professional would cap a guy over a personal affront in a bar.
However, now we’re hearing that the agent followed the guy and that a knife was found at the scene. Still, this sounds like excessive force in self-defense or in making some sort of off-duty/citizen’s arrest and the fact that the agent has been charged tends to confirm that. If HPD, the prosecutors, and the City were only concerned with giving APEC a carte blanche welcome mat, he probably would have been re;leased pending investigation.
All of which is to say, again, gotta wait ’til we get the whole story.
While I often agree, Ian, this is a story that goes beyond fires and traffic jams or neighborhood brawls that Honolulu TV likes to chase endlessly. This s real news and deserves genuine attention by any decent reporter.
I know Gordon Pang as a one-time competitor and he has a special knack for smelling a rat quickly. So I am not surprised he was all over this one.
I would hope Honolulu PD showed no professional courtesy to this suspect and did due diligence in testing him after his apprehension.
Unfortunately, I believe Ian’s headline is correct. This event, already tragic, could begin a narrative that only gets worse. I hope that it isn’t the case, but the odds just took a big swing in that direction.
A federal agent, well-trained in the use of firearms, felt his life was in danger to the point where he believed he was justified in using deadly force. Did the man he shot (and his friends), who were probably drunk after clubbing all evening, threaten him with a knife, an ass-kicking or “just” call him racist names? Was the agent drunk?
We don’t know yet, but: “Witnesses tell KHON2 Kollin appeared to have been drinking and calling people derogatory names.”
http://bit.ly/tNiBsd
Note to the victims’ friends and family members: “Nice” people don’t use racist terms like n***er, f***ing haole, beaner, etc.
Kolea raises a valid concern worth journalist pursuit — what is the training of DSS special agents and how does it compare w/other “federal agents” (FBI, NCIS, AFT, Marshal Service, et al). Apparently this guy was recruited two years ago w/a statistician background. Hardly relevant. Why should he be carrying a gun off duty prior to getting his APEC assignment presumably? In a strange town no less after the bars have closed. Elderts are good people. Tragic.
We’ll have to find out whether the agent was up late or up early because his body time clock was on East Coast time.
A reader sent this comment via email:
“Never bring a knife to a gunfight.”
A few blunt thoughts, (for those readers with tender sensibilities, please proceed to the next comment):
1. “…the (expletive) haole.”
Well, like everyone else, he’s lucky when he’s “expletive.”
2. In the little Monk (Munich), a sort of “Aloha Spirit” or friendliness is often celebrated by a few — or more — drinks followed often by some pugilistic exercise. They call it “gemütlichkeit” or something… maybe this is spreading worldwide, or just a residual effect of Octoberfest?
3. Or maybe we should rename our “State Department” to “Hate Department” or “State Departure?”
4. Anyway, even if we had all the best reporting in the world on this, I seriously doubt that the underlying facts would come to light regarding this fatality. Yet despite our limitations it is a tragedy that should be examined thoroughly if only to mitigate it’s damage, and reduce or eliminate future ones — and I expect preciously few facts are in evidence yet!
This has nothing to do with APEC other than fact that this agent was here for it. People get beaten severely in Waikiki by young “Defend Hawaii” type punks all the time and no one cares. Many times they are beaten in unfair fights trying to defend themselves against multiple attackers. No one cares when they are laying up in the hospital with brain damage. This is probably what happened in this instance but this guy defended himself.
This young man from Kaneohe was a victim of APEC. The powers that be want to show off Hawaii as the Geneva of the Pacific. Well, if you ever went to Geneva and tried to relax, forget it. It is all dollars and cents with secret bank accounts that are hiding the trillions of dollars smuggled out of Russia, China and the Middle East. Protecting those funds are a cadre of well armed and not so nice police, security agencies and private protective services who don’t have a United States Constitution to worry about.
The Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) has been protrayed in various espionage thrillers as either as spies or assassins. Known for working either in the Washington DC arena or outside the country, the DSS only internal work is associated with embassies, consulates or the UN.
So if the APEC fan club wants to makeover Hawaii to be the Geneva of the Pacific, all us local folks better take a good look at real estate on the mainland real soon. Out state will start looking like Hong Kong where the hoi polloi are kept out of the view of the Masters of the Universe with armored limos and gated communities. For us locals, they will throw us a few bones now and then, but don’t go acting up around them or their security details won’t hesitate to plug you where you stand. Civil Beat’s Pierre Omidyar has his security team at Punahou walking around in the custodian’s uniforms in order not to scare the local parents. So what do we all have to be afraid of, a bunch of drunk local kids or the people who have armed security personnel ready to shoot us at a drop of a hat.
According to witnesses these guys went into McDonald’s running their mouth to patrons. It’s no surprise that they ended up getting into a confrontation with a clean cut white guy who probably looked like he was not a threat until he opened fire on them.