ASD icon blue inverse lighter

ASD Staff

Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Bulldog vs toilet paper..."}]

Smile 26 7 3

<title>Daily Smile: Friday, July 3, 2026</title>

Bulldog vs toilet paper...

Daily Smile: Friday, July 3, 2026

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Business & Tourism

Food & Dining

After parting ways with previous business partners on a venture, 

Jason Kashtan wasn’t sure what his next move was. After a few weeks of decompressing, he joked to his wife, Miyu, about “going back to basics” and opening a lemonade stand on the side of the road.

“The moment I said it, I realized, ‘That’s not a bad idea,’” he says.

Kashtan has lived on Maui for about 30 years, but is originally from the East Coast. He explains their version of “shave ice” was Italian ice and frozen lemonade.

’s — and great ice cream from Roselani, but frozen lemonade wasn’t really a thing here,” he says. “I thought if I could make shave ice the way I remembered it as a kid — simply with real fruit, water and cane sugar, but use local lemons and make things a little less sweet to keep it refreshing — it could walk a different path from ice cream and shave ice.”

Inspired, Kashtan partnered with a friend to start this new business venture. He said they kept things simple — frozen lemonade, one size only, and at a community-centered price point.

In line with a simple product, Kashtan knew he wanted to keep the business name straightforward, as well. As an entrepreneur, Kashtan has had several small businesses, but acknowledges that his own concepts and designs have created brands that needed “too much explaining.” He didn’t want that to be the case for 

“I was going to use ‘Maui’ in the name — something that I always thought was an easy way out,” he says. “But I finally succumbed to the fact that it works. And since we are here first and foremost for the Maui community, it made sense.

“Although vague and presenting its own challenges, ‘frozen’ — not Italian ice, not shave ice — allows the brand to go in multiple different directions, which has been helpful.”

Kashtan planned to purchase a few ice cream carts for the lemonade concept, but immediately ran into issues.

“Some of Maui’s rules and regulations weren’t going to allow me to operate the carts in the way that I had planned,” Kashtan says. “Making adjustments required by the county was going to be costly and take too much time to get up and running.”

Kashtan pivoted and started shopping around for a food truck, but found that many were too big or pricey for his business's needs. He remembers starting to look for options on the Mainland and considered shipping a food truck here. Then, he came across a 1978 Chevy P30 StepVan that was for sale 3 miles away in Kīhei.

“I loved the look of the truck, as it fit the retro vibe I had envisioned for the brand since day one,” Kashtan says. “Although still expensive, it was much closer to my budget."

Maui Frozen’s food truck opened in December 2024. Reflecting on the business’s early days, Kashtan says that being mobile was essential in building the Maui Frozen brand. They initially gave away a lot of free product, just to get people to try it.

“People weren’t searching for ‘frozen lemonade’ — they looked for shave ice and ice cream — so being able to bring our product and service to where people were already gathered was critical," he says.

As the business started to gain traction, Kashtan realized it was time to add multiple flavors. POG was the business’s second flavor, then came a strawberry li hing topping.

“Suddenly, the mission became continue to keep things crazy simple, but add flavors that were familiar but different,” he says. “The goal was to refine the product to have a consistency different from anything else out there, and monitor the sugar to keep things refreshing.”

Kashtan says his wife — who was born and raised in Fukushima, Japan — was an important part of recipe development and the business’s R&D stage.

“She doesn’t enjoy anything too sweet,” he explains. “As we were coming up with flavors, she would always say, ‘Less sugar, less sugar.’ When she was finally happy with the amount of sugar I was using, I increased it by 7% — it was literally a guess, ‘lucky 7’ — and that became our recipe. It’s another critical piece in setting us apart from others in the industry.”

All of the business’s flavors do not feature any dyes, flavorings or extracts, or high fructose corn syrup. Keeping fruit as the star was Kashtan’s main objective.

“We aren’t always the most Instagrammable product; there’s no red or blue dye to make things pop," he says. "But we’re finding other ways to present the product in a fun way, mostly through our amazing local community, who visit and fill our world with personality.”

For the most part, the Maui Frozen food truck was usually located in Makena, according to Kashtan. The biz also opened for private parties and popped up at different events around town.

“Looking back, that’s what introduced us to the community, and that’s what sustained us,” Kashtan says.

About a year into the business, Kashtan and his business partner realized they had similar goals, but “vastly different ways of getting there,” and ultimately realized they weren’t aligned in the necessary ways to move the business forward. They decided to part ways; Kashtan started doing everything on his own. At a point, though, as the business grew more popular, Miyu and their daughter often came to help.

“At one point, it got to be too much and we weren’t really ready to hire employees, so my wife left her job and was suddenly a business owner again,” Kashtan says. “It wasn’t part of our plan, but it was part of God’s plan.

“Maui Frozen would absolutely not be the same without her … and I would have gone crazy,” he adds.

Opening a storefront was never part of Kashtan’s plan. But as the business started growing, Kashtan started looking around for a small commercial production kitchen that would allow him to produce all of the products and park the van.

“(At the time,) I was renting a production space form a friend of mine, and started to worry if I was being a burden, taking up so much space,” he explains.

When the Island Surf building in Kīhei — located across from Kalama Park and Cove Park, according to Kashtan — was nearing the completion of its renovation, Kashtan reached out to a realtor friend to see if the property owner would be open to splitting a unit and renting him the back side.

“Logistically, that didn’t really make sense for them, but she suggested I look at a space available on the side of the building facing Maui Wave Riders,” Kashtan says. “I did; I liked it a lot, but something was giving me pause. I was nervous to commit.”

A few months went by. One day, an operational challenge prompted Kashtan to contact his friend again about the Island Surf Building. She told him there was another frozen treat concept that was planned for a space in front of the building, but the plans fell through. She suggested Kashtan meet her at the space to have a look.

“The vibe was awesome, bustling with surfers paddling out at the Cove, the surf school in full swing, families crossing the street with surfboards," 

Kashtan remembers. "People were playing volleyball and enjoying the park.

“I felt so good — like I did when I first moved to Maui almost 30 years ago,” he adds. “There was something beautiful, nostalgic and very ‘Maui’ about the vibe. I had no idea how I was going to make it work, but I immediately knew Maui Frozen found its first permanent home."

Maui Frozen offers three simple desserts in multiple variations. Its Maui slush — which Kashtan describes as “light, smooth and refreshing” — is made from real fruit, purified water and cane sugar.

“Sticking to our familiar-but-different philosophy, two of our items are hybrids of multiple experiences, but done simply in a way that makes you feel like they’ve been here all along,” Kashtan says.

He explains he originally wanted to call the dessert something different, but the name “slush” stuck.

“I (originally) hated the name ‘slush;’ it sounded so cheap," he says. "But then, as I would explain what the dessert is, I would end up using the phrase ‘like slush,’ and customers understood. ‘Slush’ is something familiar, but calling it ‘Maui slush’ indicates that it was made for this environment.”

Maui slush treats come in flavors like lemonade — the original — Hami melon, mango, lychee and coconut coffee. Customers can add on toppings like strawberry li hing and OG li hing mui for 50 cents more.

“On the truck, we could only keep three flavors,” Kashtan says. “Having the shop is nice because we can do more (flavors). People always ask me, ‘What’s the most popular flavor?’ They all sell about the same; maybe lemonade is still the most popular, but everything else is close.

“My go-to is the lemonade because it’s nostalgic for me,” he adds. “That’s still my favorite, but I like the melon because it’s crazy refreshing.”

Kashtan says since real fruits are used to make the flavors, POG has bits of orange peel in it.

“We chop up the (fruit) skin and put it back inside (the flavor), so you have little bits of freshness,” he says. “Some people pull it out and wonder what it is, but it’s totally intentional.”

Usually six slush flavors are available, but customers who follow Maui Frozen’s Instagram will know when the biz has a seasonal special. The biz also has a coconut flavor (separate from the coconut coffee listed on the menu).

“We recently did a Japanese whiskey with miso caramel ribbon,” Kashtan says. “People are always asking, ‘Do you do just coconut?’ We did and it ended up being a hit. I didn’t like the way it looked on the menu — because there’s already coconut coffee, it looked redundant — but we have it here, if somebody asks for it.

“One of the things that we did turned out to be a hit — our coconut coffee slush with our pineapple scoop ice on top,” he adds. “It’s almost like pina colada style. The li hing mui syrup (on top) is super good.”

Kashtan says the pineapple ice was added to Maui Frozen’s menu about four months after the storefront opened. When the store first opened, the business was busy, since they already had a following from the truck.

“I was playing around with the idea of doing ice cream 

 sticking to what I knew from Boston, but tweaking it to fit Maui," 

Kashtan remembers. "I thought, ‘If I can do that, but play with the texture a bit and make it not so sweet …'”

The result: pineapple ice, Maui Frozen’s twist on ice cream. It’s made with pineapple, purified water, cane sugar and whole milk, according to Kashtan.

“The whole milk gives it that creamy mouthfeel, but it doesn’t sit heavy on your palate like ice cream does,” he explains. “It scoops a little like sherbet, but it’s different. You have to taste it to understand.

“Our Maui slush and scoop ice are not as sweet as shave ice, and not as heavy as ice cream,” he adds. “It’s its own thing designed for life on Maui. You can enjoy it in the middle of the day and not feel terrible after eating it.”

The pineapple ice is available in three sizes ($4.75 regular, $8.75 double scoop, $16.75 pint) and in three flavors. Choose from original, torched and berry; all three flavors start with the same base, Kashtan notes.

“For the torched flavor, I caramelize some pineapple in a pan,” he explains. “I cool it down, and once it’s cool, I hit it with a kitchen torch. It gets smoky and sweet, with little bits of pineapple. The berry has little bits of strawberry in it.”

The frozen banana was added to the menu after Kashtan was in the kitchen one day, making dessert for his wife and daughter. They suggested that he add frozen bananas to the menu; once he did, 

Kashtan realized the treats were "nostalgia on a stick." 

The bananas ($4.75 each) are currently dipped in the business’s dark and milk chocolate blend, and finished with either Maldon salt or roasted peanuts. Customers can also opt for the business’s Dubai flavor ($6), which is dipped in the business’s blend of milk and dark chocolates, then rolled in kataifi for crunch and finished with a pistachio cream.

“Nothing we do is too sweet, including our frozen bananas,” Kashtan says of the treat.

In terms of pricing, keeping the products “community forward” has been important to Kashtan from day one. A regular-size Maui Slush, scoop ice or frozen banana is $4.75 each.

“We occasionally get asked if we offer a 

 discount,” he says. “We work super hard to keep our prices where they are — a regular Maui slush is $4.75 for everybody, every day. Keeping prices affordable has always been important to us.”

Maui slush is also available in an extra-large size ($16.75), but Kashtan notes this is a 32-ounce tub portion.

Whether it’s keeping Maui Frozen accessible to everyone or maintaining a quality product, Kashtan says keeping the community as the business’s focus is essential.

“Maui Frozen is not just a frozen treat spot,” he says. “We try to be thoughtful about everything we do, and we genuinely want to create memorable moments for our guests; they are the reason we do this.”

The business’s counter is filled with photos of people and guests who “make our day brighter,” according to Kashtan, who says the biz also includes a retro arcade system for kids to enjoy.

“A guest once told us, ‘Maui Frozen is like a neighborhood bar without the booze,’” he says. “I love that.”

At the time of our visit, Maui Frozen’s store had been open for eight months. Since the business never did an official grand opening event, Kashtan says the biz might do a one-year anniversary celebration.

“Maui Frozen is truly a vibe,” he adds. “It’s about the people, the community; what we serve is secondary.”

Open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (open until 6:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays)

Maui Frozen owner 092326

<title>Maui Frozen features affordable, chilled treats</title>

The business, which specializes in Maui slush and pineapple scoop ice, originated as a food truck in 2024 and recently opened its first storefront in Kīhei. According to Maui Frozen owner Jason Kashtan, all desserts do not feature any dyes, flavorings or extracts, or high fructose corn syrup, and are kept at a $4.75 price point to serve the community.

Maui Frozen features affordable, chilled treats

Kam Napier Headshot

A. Kam Napier

Columnists

Government & Politics

Aloha State Daily received a press release today from a Mainland-based national interest group, U.S. Term Limits (USTL), letting us know that “2026 Hawai‘i state senate candidate, Wallyn Christian (District 13) has committed support for term limits on Congress by signing the term limits convention pledge.”

Why does this matter to that organization? “(USTL, the leader in the national, non-partisan movement to limit terms for elected officials, is gathering support from state lawmakers across the nation,” the statement says. “Its mission is to get 34 states to apply for an amendment proposal convention specific to term limits on Congress.”

Term-limiting Congress is a popular idea, and USTL cites a 

 that, “An overwhelming majority of adults (87%) favor limiting the number of terms that members of Congress are allowed to serve. This includes a majority 56% who strongly favor this proposal, just 12% are opposed.”

The idea emerges often for local politicians, as well. Civil Beat has found public support for term limits to be as high as 70% in a 2018 poll of likely voters, a stat Honolulu Civil Beat resurfaced 

 of the lawmakers themselves to see where they stand on the idea of limiting their own time in office. “Nearly half of House members and more than a third of senators say they support term limits. There are enough undecideds in both chambers to give it a good shot if they held their position for two years,” CB found.

Respectfully, all of these people are wrong. Well intentioned, but they're aiming term limits at the wrong people.

I mean, I totally understand where the frustration is coming from. We elect people, nationally and locally, then are disappointed in their results. We could end their terms ourselves by simply not reelecting these people and yet obviously a lot of the people who say they want term limits do something very odd: They seem to reelect the lousy politicians they say they want to term limit.

You want to limit someone’s term? You’re just a month away from your next opportunity to vote for someone else!

So we’ve always had the power to fire politicians with every election, but don’t, then remain convinced that what we need is more turnover in government to make it more efficient, effective and responsive. Somebodies’ terms need limiting, but who?

Easy: The workforce. The bureaucrats. See, I want term limits, too, but I want them on the people staffing all the departments and agencies that we’re perpetually frustrated with. 

Consider, to cite just one example, how many different mayors you’ve seen over the past 20 or 30 years promise to reform the departments of planning and permitting in each county. The mayors have term limits. They come and go. Have any of them succeeded at this reform?

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi has done more than any predecessor but there’s a long way still to go.

How many Hawai‘i governors — term-limited governors — have promised Hawai‘i a public education second to none? Which of them succeeded? Who is still in place, immune to reform?

What happens in real life is, candidates make bold promises of reform, we elect them, then they announce bold plans for reform and those plans run headfirst into a culture of unfirable civil servants shielded by union protections. These folks don’t even have to noisily and aggressively oppose the reform, all they have to do is … not do it. And wait. Four years later, or eight years later, their antagonist is gone, the staff remains, with its culture of job security over excellence safely intact.

[{"type":"text","text":"We, the taxpayers and voters, then sit around wondering what happened."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Two Hawai‘i’s"}]

What’s happened is simple: Since statehood, Hawai‘i’s people have steadily split into two camps, those who work for government and everybody else. The appeal of Government Hawai‘i is the security and benefits — lifelong employment, if you want it, totally protected from market forces and competition, with solid benefits like healthcare and retirement, paid for by the rest of us in Real Hawai‘i.

If you think the security and the bennies of government jobs are a trade-off to compensate for low pay, guess again. Government Hawai‘i earns more than Real Hawai‘i.

The annual average wage of a non-government job in Hawai‘i is 

 from the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

The average annual wage in state government? 

What does Real Hawai‘i get in return? One of the highest tax burdens in America for one thing, and then very little to brag about in high-quality government service. (

I would say that that two Hawai‘i’s have hardened into opposing camps, except that’s not exactly true. Government Hawai‘i drives an Us vs Them dynamic, that was never clearer to me than it was during Covid, when Government Hawai‘i showed us that it will shut the rest of down for years at a time given the slightest opportunity. It will also protect itself first, at the expense of the public is supposedly serves, as we see in the lingering effects of the schools closing for so long. That policy made no one safer, but it did mess up the kids. (And have you noticed ever since then, Government Hawai‘i takes the day off for even bad weather like it never did before, while the rest of us soldier on with our work?)

Out here in Real Hawai‘i, we grumble but otherwise settle for apathy (i.e., low voter turnout) or outright flight to states where it feels like a good life is more possible. I don’t know who Government Hawai‘i is going to tax when the last of us moves to Vegas.

With all that in mind, term limits on government service seem like the one revolution we haven’t tried, haven’t even discussed, but should. Say 10, 15 years max, total lifetime employment in government at any level. We want people to stay long enough to learn the ropes and finish things they’ve started, not so long that they just settle in and kill time until retirement.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The upsides:"}]

Breaks up all the pockets of resistance to change. Turnover would occur systemwide, one person at a time, as they age out. Reformers at the top have a chance building support in the workforce among newer staff.

[{"type":"text","text":"Brings in new people and new ideas in government at every level."}]

Opens up more opportunities for Government Hawai‘i and Real Hawai‘i to trade places and live in each other’s worlds. This may be the biggest upside — more of us would get a chance to feel like we had a chance to change the system from the inside and deliver the service we’ve always wanted, while more of them would be forced to realize that Real Hawai‘i is something more than subjects to be ruled and tax cows to be milked.

Forces a revolution in how government hires. Using Mayor Blangiardi again as an example, he’s talked about how it took people six months on average to get hired by the City & County of Honolulu when he assumed office. 

, he had cut that down to three months. Compared to the speed at which the private sector can hire, that’s still an eternity, and that would have to change immediately to deal with the kind of turnover we need.

(To be fair, government is not alone on this front. In my decade at Pacific Business News, I heard executives at Hawai‘i’s larger companies talk endlessly about a labor shortage. At the same time, I knew plenty of talented people who could not land great jobs. Something is seriously broken in the hiring process, and I suspect HR, especially using automated keyword-based filters on resumes, is to blame. Make Direct Hiring by Managers Great Again!)

Loss of expertise, I suppose, but we’ve seen what the accumulated expertise gets us: A chief elections officer who thought a lauhala basket suited the dignity of a Hawai‘i electoral tie-breaker and ended getting his office sued — successfully — and 

. Scott Nago has worked at the Office of Election for nearly 26 years, almost 17 of those years as its chief election officer. As Civil Beat 

, it’s just about the only place he has ever worked in his life. Well, in the private sector, you can lose your job for bungling things so badly you get sued. Under my plan, the private sector is where he would’ve been sent years ago. Had someone else, perhaps with a wider range of life experience, been at the helm, maybe that person would've made better decisions.

[{"type":"text","text":"So, OK, there are no downsides."}]

Term limits on government service. If you like this idea, spread the word. We’d be moving a mountain to make it happen. But that’s got to be better than carrying the mountain of Government Hawai‘i on our shoulders forever.

A. Kam Napier is editor in chief of Aloha State Daily. His opinions in Pipikaula Corner are his own and not reflective of the ASD team.

Term limits i Stock 517737402 16x9

People take time out of their lives to participate in the democratic process by testifying before committee hearings. Too often, the committee isn't there.

I Stock 1169235347

Pipikaula Corner: Invisible Legislators

It's not getting much media attention, but the private diaries of Dr. Anthony Fauci have been published online by Sen. Rand Paul in advance of his hearings this week into Fauci and Covid-19. What they reveal across thousands of pages is man in love with the adulation he received, who privately knew that many of things he said publicly about the pandemic were wild exaggerations.

Getty Images 2155919948

Pipikaula Corner: Fauci revealed as fear-mongering, fame-loving fraud

<title>Pipikaula Corner: Limiting the wrong terms</title>

It's an election year, and some people are running on the popular idea that legislators and Congress should have term limits to prevent lifers from working the system. ASD Editor in Chief A. Kam Napier argues this is a great idea, with the wrong target. What if it's actually the government workforce itself that needs a term limit?

Pipikaula Corner: Limiting the wrong terms

Arrasmith Portrait

Perry Arrasmith

The Senate should get more time to weigh judicial nominations, according to one proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot this year. 

In the 2025 Legislative Session, the proposed amendment quietly sailed through the State Legislature as 

. Championed by outgoing Senate Judiciary Chair Karl Rhoads, it modifies the amount of time the Senate has to act on judicial nominations.

 is approved by Hawai‘i’s voters, the State Senate will have 60 days to “consider and act” on the appointment of state judges and justices while the Senate is not in regular session or is otherwise set to wrap a legislative session. The 60-day window will apply to any appointments made between April 1 and December 31. 

For the Senate, it can be hard to wrangle enough members of the Senate Judiciary Committee (let alone the entire Senate) to formally vote on these nominations while the Legislature is adjourned (it meets from late January through early May). Furthermore, the logistical headache of flying Neighbor Island senators over to Honolulu for individual nominations during a special session can emerge as an added cost to taxpayers.

The Senate is not a herd of cats, but it is a body full of many busy members with major priorities. The mechanics of these nominations present a big logistical challenge for the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the one person charged with overseeing all judicial nominations submitted to the Senate for advice and consent. 

“Each special session costs approximately $5,000 for airfare and per diem for Neighbor Island senators, in addition to senator and staff time, and some special sessions address just one or two appointments,” one Senate Judiciary Committee report 

“Accordingly, this measure will provide flexibility in the scheduling of special sessions and may reduce the number of special sessions by lengthening the period of time allowed for the Senate to consider judicial appointments when the Senate is not in regular session or is about to adjourn the regular session.”

As Senate Bill 121 advanced, the only written testimony came from the Administrative Director of the Courts, Rodney A. Maile. The testimony itself remained largely unchanged throughout each hearing, as the court’s primary concern did not evolve. 

“If the constitutional amendment proposed by this measure passes and is approved by voters,” Maile 

, “it could leave judicial vacancies unfilled for an extended period of time, depending on when a vacancy occurs.”

Finding qualified applicants is difficult in Hawai‘i, from the District Courts to the Circuit Courts to the Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA) and the Supreme Court. 

, a body of individuals appointed by the Speaker of the House, the President of the Senate, the Governor, the Chief Justice, or the State Bar Association. 

“We would note that the current process of filling judicial vacancies is already time intensive, with the posting of notice of the vacancy, application deadlines, candidate interviews, and the determination of qualified applicants in some cases taking more than a year after a vacancy occurs,” Maile acknowledged. “This proposed change would prolong the period of vacancy for certain appointments, thus delaying the onboarding of new justices and judges.”

Applicants for a certain position must go through the Judicial Selection Commission, which screens applicants before forwarding them to either the Governor or the Chief Justice to select a nominee. The governor nominates members of the Supreme Court, the ICA, and Circuit Courts to 10-year terms. 

Meanwhile, the Chief Justice appoints members of the District Courts and the Family Courts for six-year terms. 

From this vantage point, it is easy to understand why the state court system might have some reservations about lengthening the timetable for filling a vacancy.

Whether or not voters care enough to oppose this amendment remains to be seen. What is more important, however, is that they understand what’s in the amendment. 

In Hawai‘i, voters formally approve any proposed change to the Constitution of the State of Hawai‘i. In order to be adopted, constitutional amendments in the state must receive a majority of all the ballots cast in an election. 

If there are more affirmative (yes) votes than negative (no) votes, but a substantial number of blank votes leave the affirmative votes as only a minority of the total votes cast, the amendment fails. A blank vote can have the inadvertent effect of becoming a no vote. 

I don’t see how a voter would be concerned with such a minor, technical change. It’s a matter of giving the Senate more time to do its due diligence while saving some taxpayer money. Whether such additional time creates a larger administrative burden for our courts as they struggle to fill vacancies is another matter entirely.

I Stock 178835830 16x9 Large

<title>A silent constitutional amendment for the courts</title>

One of the things you'll be asked to decide as a voter in the general election is whether or not the State Constitution should be changed to give the state Senate more time to review people nominated to be judges. ASD political historian Perry Arrasmith explains how this got on the ballot and what the change could mean for the judicial system.

A silent constitutional amendment for the courts

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Crime & Courts

Aloha Spirit

A 24-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with last weekend’s fatal shooting in Kailua.

The Honolulu Police Department announced on Sept. 28 that homicide detectives identified a suspect who was arrested for second-degree murder and firearm offenses just before 11 p.m. Monday night. HPD arrest logs 

 Hilinaikailimakualopali Keeno as the suspect.

Keeno’s arrest was possible through the assistance of the HPD’s Criminal Investigation Division’s Forensic Video Unit. HPD had previously requested that members of the public submit photos or videos of the Kailua Fall Festival, which was ongoing at the time of the shooting, that could help identify the suspect, who at the time was described as “a local male in his late 20s.”

HPD’s announcement also identified the victim: 30-year-old Thomas Malone, the son of Michael Buntenbah, who owns the 

Friends and family of Malone gathered at the Kailua Target parking lot Tuesday to commemorate him with flowers, candles and memorabilia. Also in attendance were Malone’s old soccer coach and former teammates.

Malone had a decorated athletic career during high school, having played football, soccer and track and field at Kaiser High School. Hawai‘i sports website ScoringLive 

 Malone their Offensive Player of the Year for the 2013 football season, saying that Malone — then a senior going by the name Buntenbah-Leong — accumulated 149 points over 12 games.

Aloha State Daily's Christian Shimabuku and Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros contributed to this article.

 The Honolulu Police Department is seeking photos and videos of the Kailua Fall Festival that can shed light on the shooting death of a 30-year-old man.

On Sept. 26, shortly after 8:30 p.m., a gunshot was reported in the parking lot of the Target in Kailua, where a 30-year-old man was found with a fatal gunshot wound and was declared dead at the scene.

Initial investigations by HPD determined that two groups of people got into an argument at the Kailua Fall Festival, which was adjacent to the parking lot. That argument spilled into the lot, where somebody pulled out a gun and shot the victim.

The shooter, however, was unidentified beyond the description: “a local male in his late 20s, wearing a black sweater and his hair in two braids.”

HPD has initiated a murder investigation and has received surveillance footage and other pictures from the festival. However, detectives are requesting additional photos from the event that could help identify the shooter. Even photos that don’t explicitly show the shooting can still contain relevant information, HPD has stated.

People with information or recordings regarding the incident are asked to call 911 or CrimeStoppers at 808-955-8300.

[{"type":"text","text":"The investigation remains ongoing."}]

Kailua shooting victim memorial

<title>UPDATED: Woman arrested for weekend Kailua shooting</title>

On Sept. 28, HPD identified the alleged shooter from the Kailua Fall Festival this past weekend and also named the victim: Thomas Malone, 30, who had a decorated athletic career at Kaiser High School, where he played football, soccer and track and field. Friends and family of Malone gathered at the Kailua Target parking lot Tuesday to commemorate him with flowers, candles and memorabilia.

UPDATED: Woman arrested for weekend Kailua shooting

Sports

A former Moanalua High School girls’ wrestling coach was charged in U.S. District Court last week with possession of child porn.

Sean Sakaida, 44, was arrested Thursday for receiving and possessing explicit photos of one of his former wrestling students, after someone tipped off the FBI about a possible inappropriate relationship between an adult and a minor earlier this year.

According to an FBI affidavit, a member of the Moanalua girls’ wrestling team told an investigator in January that Sakaida had a relationship “beyond that of coach and athlete” with another member.

When FBI agents broached the subject to the alleged victim’s mother, she did not initially cooperate. However, in July, the mother provided the agents with a recording of a WhatsApp conversation she found on her daughter’s phone, in which an unidentified user — although one who used a phone number investigators recognized as Sakaida’s — solicited sexually explicit images of the victim.

Subsequent reviews of Sakaida’s WhatsApp account activity showed that Sakaida sent and received images to and from the victim on a near-daily basis, along with frequent video calls. During a 25-day period between Aug. 21 and Sept. 14, Sakaida contacted the victim more than 5,600 times via images, texts, telephone and video calls.

The FBI then executed a search warrant on Sakaida’s iCloud account, where they found copies of the WhatsApp photos received between December of last year and January.

The affidavit notes that Sakaida’s iCloud account also included wrestling-related notes that included players’ birthdates, including the victim’s, indicating that he knew she was a minor.

While the affidavit does not mention finding images or conversations with other minors in Sakaida’s accounts, the FBI has urged other potential victims of Sakaida to come forward, alleging that Sakaida reportedly targeted other wrestlers as far back as 2012.

The FBI’s Honolulu Field Office has set up a 

Sean Sakaida, 44, was arrested Thursday for receiving and possessing explicit photos of one of his former wrestling students, after someone tipped off the FBI about a possible inappropriate relationship between an adult and a minor earlier this year. If convicted, Sakaida faces a minimum sentence of five years in prison, and a maximum of 20 years, along with possible fines of up to $250,000.

Daily Smile: Friday, July 3, 2026

ASD Staff

Reporter

More in Daily Smile

Daily Smile: Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026

Daily Smile: Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026

Daily Smile: Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026

Daily Smile: Monday, Sept. 28, 2026

Most read

Daily Smile: Friday, July 3, 2026

Authors

ASD Staff

Reporter

More in Daily Smile

Daily Smile: Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026

Daily Smile: Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026

Daily Smile: Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026

Daily Smile: Monday, Sept. 28, 2026

Most read