Three Honolulu police officers were justified in using lethal force against an armed suspect in Pearl City two years ago, the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney ruled Tuesday.
Just over two years ago, in the early hours of June 23, 2023, a woman saw through a home surveillance system that her ex-boyfriend, 32-year-old Nathaniel Taualai, had broken into her Pearl City home wielding two large kitchen knives and destroying property in the house.
Roughly three hours later, Taualai would be pronounced dead, struck by four gunshots fired by three Honolulu police officers.
As per HPD protocol, the officers were not identified, although a DPA report stated that one had 16 years of service at the time of the incident, another had three years and the third, a sergeant, had 18 years. None had any charges of misconduct, nor any sustained records of prior use of force incidents.
Prosecuting Attorney Steven Alm said Tuesday that the three officers fired 11 shots within six seconds, in an incident he described as a prototypical “suicide by cop.”
“We see a lot of them in these officer-involved shootings,” Alm said.
The incident, like all police-involved shootings, triggered a follow-up investigation by the DPA to determine whether the officers’ use of force was justified.
That investigation, Alm said, looks at three specific criteria.
The first two criteria are related: did the officers use lethal force in self-defense, or in defense of another? Alm said the investigation was clear on that front, based on Taualai’s behavior as described in the DPA report.
After Taualai’s ex-girlfriend called the police, officers arrived on-scene at about 4:20 a.m. and, with the ex-girlfriend, attempted to open the front door. Taualai responded by shouting threats — “Back the f--- up, I’m going to kill somebody. You kill me or I kill you,” according to the DPA report — and saying he had a gun.
This was the first of many explicit threats of lethal violence Taualai made to officers during the incident.
After a two-hour standoff, during which officers set up a perimeter around the house while Taualai destroyed property and set a fire within the home, Taualai emerged from the house, holding two large knives and approached a neighbor’s home, ignoring a police sergeant’s commands to stop.
Instead, Taualai climbed the neighboring home’s external staircase toward a second-floor balcony, reportedly shouting “F--- you, I going die! Fucking kill me!”
Two officers were located on that home’s second floor, using it as a sniper lookout. However, when Taualai approached the home, the officers left their room to lock the residence’s ground floor doors, leaving their rifles behind.
When the officers returned, they found Taualai had entered the room from the balcony and was now armed with one of the rifles. One officer fired twice at Taualai with his sidearm.
A second officer, located in the backyard of a third home — two homes down the street from Taualai’s ex-girlfriend’s — heard the gunshots and, when Taualai re-emerged onto the balcony, fired twice from the ground.
From the bottom of the external staircase, the police sergeant saw Taualai, still holding a knife, at the top of the staircase. According to the report, Taualai “charged” at the sergeant, who fired four times.
Taualai collapsed and fell down the stairs. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Between the multiple threats of violence, the aggressive behavior, and the wielding of deadly weapons — including a police rifle — Alm said officers were justifiably in fear for their lives, and the lives of their fellow officers.
The third criterion for determining whether lethal force is justifiable is whether the force was used in the apprehension of a person suspected of committing a felony, whose actions involved or threatened deadly force, or who poses a substantial risk of seriously injuring or killing others if they are not apprehended swiftly.
Officers first arrived on scene to apprehend Taualai for first-degree burglary and first-degree arson, both felony offenses.
Even before Taualai threatened officers with weapons, his ex-girlfriend was already fearful of him. She had obtained a temporary restraining order against Taualai prohibiting him from visiting her residence and, in fact, had not stayed at her home for the previous four days because she was afraid of encountering him — she learned of his presence at her home remotely through her home surveillance.
With these findings, Alm concluded that the police use of force was justified under all three criteria, and that no charges would be filed against the three officers who fired.
“I wish these wouldn’t happen,” Alm said. “Even if they were justified, the officers have to live with having taken a life.”
Alm said other police disciplinary actions — such as any that might stem from an officer leaving a police firearm unattended in the middle of a response to an armed and dangerous suspect — were not considered within the scope of the investigation.
ASD has asked HPD for comment on any investigations or actions taken over the abandoned rifles.
