Maui Police Department

Goal peaceful resolve; negotiations 'ongoing'

KAHULUI - A police standoff in a Kahului neighborhood entered its second night Thursday, with 22-year-old fugitive Josiah Okudara remaining barricaded in a house on Opukea Street.

Another man who had been in the house emerged from the residence and was taken into police custody at about 2:40 p.m., said Lt. Wayne Ibarra, Maui Police Department spokesman.

While the man was taken to the Wailuku Police Station, police Special Response Team negotiators were continuing to talk with Okudara.

"Negotiations are ongoing," Ibarra said at the scene Thursday evening. "Hopefully, we will be able to resolve it as peacefully as possible."

Ibarra said police were maintaining contact with the fugitive but declined to say how exactly.

Later in the evening, Hoomoku Street resident Gary Utterback said he heard police deploy smoke bombs around 7 p.m. Thursday and then use a bullhorn to try to get Okudara to talk on the telephone.

But he said police still were not able to talk Okudara out of the residence. Utterback said there was no gunfire after the 7 p.m. use of smoke bombs.

At 8:22 p.m., shots were fired from within the residence, Ibarra said. Police did not return fire, he said. No injuries were reported.

The standoff began at about 1 p.m. Wednesday when police and other law enforcement officials went to the residence after developing information that Okudara was there.

Police have been looking for Okudara since last year, when he was indicted on charges including first- and second-degree attempted murder in connection with a July 24, 2010, shooting on Olena Street, in Wailuku. A 30-year-old man was hospitalized after being shot in the thigh, police said.

Okudara was arrested after police officers chased a silver Honda that was seen quickly leaving the area after the shooting. The car was stopped about two hours later on Kahekili Highway near Kahakuloa Village. After being arrested, Okudara was released pending further investigation.

A $500,000 warrant later was issued for his arrest.

Okudara also is wanted on a $50,000 felony drug warrant.

He has been sought for questioning in a May 14 crash that killed 22-year-old Tiare Franco, of Haiku. Police said she was ejected from a truck that went off Kahekili Highway and down a steep embankment between Waihee and Kahakuloa. While Franco died at the scene of the crash, police said another truck occupant fled.

Starting Wednesday afternoon, police surrounded the Opukea Street house and evacuated some nearby residences, blocking off Opukea between Hoomoku and Makamaka streets and also blocking Mahaolu Street at South Kamehameha Avenue near Luana Gardens and Hale Mahaolu Elima.

Kahului Standoff Enters Third Day - Maui's Weekly Online and ...

The stand-off between Maui police and a 22 year-old attempted murder suspect entered its third day today, keeping 25 Kahului residents from their homes after the neighborhood was evacuated.

Maui Police Department spokesman Lt. Wayne Ibarra said this morning that officials are still talking with the suspect, Josiah Okudara, who barricaded himself in Opukea Street home at about 1 p.m. Wednesday.

“We are still in contact,” Ibarra said. “We are trying to negotiate with him.”

Ibarra said police believe that there is no one else in the Kahului home execpt for Okudara after a man walked out Thursday afternoon. Earlier in the day, two females and a child left the residence voluntarily, he said.

Maria Lutz, Red Cross director of disaster services, said 25 area residents, who were evacuated from the area Wednesday spent the their second night at the emergency shelter at the Kahului Community Center Annex on Uhu Street.

“There are cots set up there,” she said, “and we are providing meals.”

All schools in surrounding area were open this morning, the Department of Education reported.

Ibarra said several shots were also fired “inside the residence” Thursday night after police established a perimeter around the house. Police fired no shots, he said. Maui County spokesman Rod Antone said the shots were fired at about 10:20 p.m.

MPD’s SWAT team set up a perimeter around the house and evacuated three or four surrounding houses. Police had power to the home cut off and closed Hoomoku Street.

Police have sought Okudara for the July 2010 shooting of a man in Wailuku. After a year of eluding law enforcement Okudara was tracked down by U.S. marshals to the Opukea Street house.

In May, Maui police and CrimeStoppers asked for the public’s help in finding Okudara, who is wanted for allegedly attempting to kill a man last summer.

Police say Okudara was indicted for first-degree attempted murder in the shooting of a 30-year-old man following what witnesses described as a confrontation between several people on Olena Street in Wailuku at about 10:30 p.m. on July 24, 2010. The victim suffered a gunshot wound to his left thigh.

Okudara is wanted on two grand jury warrants totaling $550,000.

Okudara also is wanted as a “person of interest” in a car crash that killed 22-year-old Tiare Franco, of Haiku, on May 14. Franco was thrown from a pickup truck that plunged 75 feet down a cliff off Kahekili Highway near Waihee Elementary School. The truck was traveling north on Kahekili Highway when it failed to negotiate a left curve and plunged off a steep embankment, police said.

Revised laws of Hawaii, 1945, comprising the statutes of the Territory, consolidated, revised and annotated, as of January 1, 1945 : published by authority

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