What a difference a few years make.

Early in 2014, Keoni Adric and Dustin Young-Toledo posed for a photo flanking their friend and mentor, Kelii Young, the self-described leader who recruited young men into a gang along Oahu’s North Shore, aptly known as the North Shore Boys. Young then posted the photo on Instagram. Adric was 16 at the time.

Just four years later, Young-Toledo and his uncle were shot and killed in the parking lot of the Haleiwa Joe’s restaurant on Oahu’s North Shore.

Adric, then 20, a nationally recognized junior boxer, was identified as the shooter, and was also wounded in the exchange of gunfire. The two who died were identified as Young-Toledo, 26, and his uncle, Victor “Dusky” Toledo, 37.

Adric was initially arrested on suspicion of first degree murder, but released after prosecutors declined to file murder charges. He was later charged with carrying a pistol or revolver that was not lawfully stored.

Then, just last year, it was disclosed Adric was an FBI confidential source in the Miske investigation ath the time of the shooting. Like local prosecutors, FBI investigators determined Adric had acted in self-defense and continued to work with him as a confidential source after the shooting.

Although a security video captured the events in the parking lot, it has not been made public. Absent details to support the decision not to bring charges, many observers wondered how Adric had “gotten away with it,” and have continued to speculate about what the FBI and prosecutors might be hiding.

The answer was made public earlier this year, buried in a relatively obscure court filing in Adric’s case. Judge Faauuga Tootoo signed off on the document, “Findings of fact, conclusions of law, and order” supporting his decision to deny a motion to dismiss the gun charge against Adric. Tootoo’s ruling was filed in the Circuit Court case in February 2024.

The findings spell out a harrowing step-by-step account of how the incident unfolded.

Confronted at gunpoint

Adric and a cousin, Cyru Edayan, were planning to meet friends for dinner at Haleiwa Joe’s on the night of Friday, August 31, 2018. The next day, September 1, was Adric’s 21st birthday.

Dustin Young-Toledo was also at a table in the restaurant with two friends, Thomas McCandless and Daytyn Ragragola.

A lot had happened since Keoni and Dustin were photographed together in 2014. In 2018, Adric was shot in both hands by Young-Toledo’s uncle, “Dusky” Toledo, who pulled him aside at a Waianae cockfight and shot him in both hands, effectively ending a promising boxing career.

I’ve been told, but have not been able to verify, that Adric had been dating Young-Toledo’s sister and had hit her before the couple broke up, drawing Dusky Toledo’s violent punishment.

Dustin Young-Toledo also had a longstanding feud with another of Adric’s cousins, Kaden Kanae, going back several years. In October 2015, Dustin was charged with felony assault for allegedly leading a group which mobbed Kanae and others partiers at a beach in Mokuleia. Kanae was stabbed during the assault and later pressed charges, naming Dustin as his attacker. Young-Toledo was acquitted after the judge in the case found “a credibility issue” with Kanae’s testimony, as well as “the absence of any corraborating witness.”

But other potential witnesses had been afraid to appear in court because Dusky Toledo, along with his friend, Thomas McCandless, had been intimidating the kids to prevent them from testifying, Kanae’s mother alleged in a telephone interview last year.

In any case, Adric had been avoiding contact with both Young-Toledo and Toledo but, fearing “something would happen,” arrived at Haleiwa Joe’s with a Taurus handgun concealed in the waistband of his pants.

Around the restaurant’s 10 p.m. closing time, Adric and his friends exited and walked into the parking lot.

McCandless approached them, “and the conversation turned hostile,” according to the judge’s factual findings.

McCandless had his own beef with Adric’s cousin, Kaden Kanae. Less than four months earlier, sometime after 9 p.m., McCandless had confronted Kanae in the area known as “Monuments,” a parking area adjacent to the Haleiwa Beach Park War Memorial. The area is a known “hangout” where kids and young adults routinely gather to listen to music or just hang out. Several shots were fired, and McCandless was hit three times in the thigh and once in the lower body.

Back in the Haleiwa Joe’s parking lot, “without provocation, Young-Toledo appeared with a gun and pointed it at [Adric’] head,” according to Tootoo’s findings.

After Adric and Edayan put their hands up, Young-Toledo “assaulted both with the gun and forced them into the back of the parking lot.”

That’s when Dusky Toledo appeared out of the darkness wearing a ski mask and brandishing a handgun. He joined in forcing the pair toward the far end of the parking lot at gunpoint.

Then, according to the judge’s findings, Adric “pulled the gun out of his pants and shot Young-Toledo and Toledo several times.” Adric also suffered several gunshot wounds, but he and Edayan were able to run for their lives.

Adric found a place to hide and called 911. He was taken by ambulance to Queen’s Medical Center. It was now his 21st birthday.