Honolulu police officers’ use of force was justified when they shot and killed a man who picked up an unattended police rifle during a standoff in a Pearl City neighborhood in June 2023, according to Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm.

No charges will be filed against the officers, who feared for their safety as well as that of those around them, Alm said Tuesday. Alm said his office did not look into the fact that the rifle was left unattended as part of its investigation.

Alm’s comments came just two days after a fatal officer-involved shooting at Keʻehi Boat Harbor — the first this year — and hours before another took place on the Westside in Mākaha, in which a 37-year-old man was critically injured.

“I don’t know what happened, whether there was any disciplinary action,” Alm said of the 2023 shooting during the press conference at his office. “Our investigation is really looking at were they justified in the shooting and should anybody be charged.”

Spokespersons for the Honolulu Police Department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Honolulu Police Commission Chair Ken Silva said in a text that the unattended rifle investigation is ongoing and that an update on the matter has been added to the agenda for the next commission meeting on July 2.

At around 4 a.m. on June 23, 2023, Nathaniel Taualai, 32, broke into his ex girlfriend’s house on Kalauipo Street in Pearl City. She was not staying there because she was afraid of him finding her there and had filed for a temporary restraining order against him, according to Alm’s report. The woman saw Taualai break in via her home surveillance system and called police.

Taualai was armed with knives and threatening to shoot co-workers and police officers. 

Officers arrived on scene at around 4:20 a.m. The woman arrived shortly thereafter to let them into the home with her house key. Taualai immediately started screaming, “Back the fuck up. I’m going to kill somebody. You kill me or I kill you. I’m not going to jail,” the report says.

Police set up a perimeter around the home and evacuated neighbors. The department’s specialized services division also arrived on scene.

For two hours, Taualai remained inside shouting and destroying property. Smoke began coming from the home at around 6:30 a.m., and Taualai, armed with kitchen knives in each hand, moved across the driveway to the house next door where two officers who were part of the specialized services division sniper detail were stationed on the second floor.

One of them heard another officer shout that Taualai was moving toward them. They ran downstairs to lock the doors of the house, leaving their rifles unattended upstairs, the report says.

While downstairs, they heard someone shout that Taualai was going up the exterior stairs of the house. One of the officers ran back upstairs to see Taualai holding the HPD rifle in one hand and a large knife in the other and moving toward the officer.

The officer shot at Taualai with his service pistol, causing Taualai to back up out of the room and into the balcony railing. An officer at another nearby house also opened fire.

Taualai dropped the rifle and knife and went to the exterior stairs of the house. The officer who’d initially shot at him pursued him and shot at him again.

A sergeant on scene also fired at Taualai while he was at the top of the stairs, causing him to tumble down the steps.

Taualai had been struck in the left arm, left thigh, chest and head. He was pronounced dead at 7:14 a.m.

A toxicology report revealed he had cocaine, caffeine, nicotine and a depression medication in his system, according to the prosecutor’s report.

Christine Denton, spokeswoman for the Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office, said surveillance footage from the shooting would be shared on the prosecutor’s website Tuesday.

Another Police Shooting This Week

Alm said his office will also be investigating a barricade situation that ended with the fatal shooting of a man on Sunday.

The man, whose identity has not yet been released by officials, was on a boat in Keʻehi Boat Harbor off Sand Island Access Road firing a gun at people on another boat at around 6:30 a.m., Honolulu police Chief Joe Logan said during a press conference Sunday. 

Officers found him armed with a hammer and tried to disable him with a Taser after he refused to get off the boat, Logan said. Officers tried twice to deploy Tasers but were unsuccessful. 

The man then barricaded himself in the hatch of the boat and told police he was armed with a gun. Officers could see the barrel of a long gun and a sword inside the hatch. 

Specialized services division officers responded to the scene at 7 a.m. along with members of the crisis negotiation team. 

Negotiators called the man multiple times during the standoff, Honolulu police Maj. Hunter Ah Loo of the specialized services division said in an interview. 

“We tried to negotiate with him numerous times off and on for hours,” he said. “He stopped answering our calls and hung up on us numerous times.” 

The department also had two drones flying above the boat to help them see what was going on inside, Ah Loo said. 

Just after 12:50 p.m., the man came out of the hatch and pointed a shotgun-style firearm at officers who were 15 to 20 feet away on the pier, Logan said during the press conference. 

One officer shot the man in the cheek, Logan said. 

The man remained on the boat deck and refused medical assistance. He appeared to be attempting to “inflict self harm,” Logan said.

About 30 minutes later, officers were able to approach the man, and paramedics with the Honolulu Emergency Services took him to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. 

This was the first officer-involved shooting for HPD of 2025, Logan said. Later Tuesday afternoon, the second occurred in Mākaha.

There, police shot a person who they said was attempting to kill an officer, according to Honolulu police. A 37-year-old man was critically injured and Hana and Orange streets were closed in both directions.

Four people were fatally shot by officers last year. Besides Taualai, two other people died in standoffs with police in 2023, though both died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

Civil Beat maintains a history of officer-involved shootings statewide, from 2010-present, in this database.