From cracking down on ghost guns to deploying social workers to crime-prone neighborhoods, officials are gearing up to make the problems facing West Oahu a focus of state and city legislation following a spike in violence.

Recent shootings, including one that left four people dead, have drawn attention to longstanding community concerns such as crime, homelessness and a need for more youth programs and better city services on the Leeward Coast.

Rep. Darius Kila, who represents Maili, Nanakuli, Honokai Hale and Ko Olina, said he wants his fellow legislators to tackle the issues with a coordinated effort in the upcoming session, much like they did in response to the Lahaina wildfires last year.

“It’s going to be an all hands on deck situation,” he said.

“Our community is such a resilient one, but I think they’ve been asked to be resilient for so long, it’s getting exhausting,” he said. “I think it has to be a statewide issue.”

Honolulu City Council member Andria Tupola, meanwhile, has proposed a plan to spruce up a troubled housing complex and some of the surrounding buildings along Farrington Highway.

Derricka Lindsey, a resident of the Kulia I Ka Nuu housing complex in Waianae’s Uluwehi subdivision, which was the site of a double shooting on Aug. 15, said she thinks that’s a good start.

“I think that’s great,” she said, adding that her community could use upgrades, such as more lighting in the parking lots. “Living over here, it’s dark. It’s as simple as changing the lightbulb.”

Lindsey said physical improvements to the area will boost community morale, but she also wants more action taken to keep people safe, like hiring private security for the complex and organizing events for neighbors. 

She said the Aug. 15 shooting in the subdivision happened right outside her gate.

“It affected us really bad,” she said. “The kids are always outside and playing. That put some fear in the kids.” 

Ghost Guns 

Law enforcement officials are particularly concerned about ghost guns on the Westside. Ghost guns are privately made firearms that lack serial numbers and are harder to trace. Parts can be ordered online or manufactured using a 3D printer, and tutorials available on YouTube can explain how put them together to build a functioning firearm.

It is already a felony in Hawaii to manufacture, purchase or obtain parts to make a gun without a serial number, but Kila said he thinks the state should start monitoring 3D printers, which are increasingly becoming known for their role in the manufacture of the illicit weapons.

He plans to propose a bill next legislative session that resembles one introduced last year in New York, which would require criminal background checks for anyone purchasing a three-dimensional printer capable of creating firearms.

Kila said he would also like to see an agency, such as the Attorney General’s Office, keep a running list of everyone in the state who has purchased a 3D printer.

The bill’s intention isn’t to cast anyone who purchases a 3D printer as a criminal, especially since the printers are widely used to make other items, he said, but rather to make it easier for law enforcement officials to track down the source of ghost guns if they start to spring up in a community.

“There are folks who are using these 3D printers to create weapons of harm,” Kila said.

Honolulu Prosecutor Steve Alm said his office also plans to draft a bill creating a mandatory yearlong sentence for anyone found in possession of a ghost gun or part for one. While he said his office hasn’t tracked data on how many crimes involve ghost guns locally, anecdotally he knows they’re becoming more prevalent.

Nationally, the number of ghost guns recovered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives increased from 1,758 in 2016 to 19,344 in 2021, according to a report released last year by the agency.

“I just want it to look beautiful so we can start to really take pride in that area.”

City Council Member Andria Tupola

Alm said he hopes a mandatory minimum sentence for ghost gun possession could help deter people from using them. 

“There’s no serial number, people are assembling these things and it’s very dangerous,” Alm said.  “It may not be well put together, and it could blow up in people’s hands. That’s something we’re all having to come to grips with.”

Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Yu did not respond to a question about whether the department has data on how many recent violent crimes involved ghost guns, but Chief Joe Logan has said they are a concern for the department, particularly on the Westside.

HPD Maj. Gail Beckley, who oversees District 8, which stretches from Ewa Beach to Kaena Point, said after a town hall meeting last week that her officers had recently arrested a man on domestic violence charges who had a ghost gun. A man who was killed by police after shooting three people in Waianae on Aug. 14 had a homemade rifle in his home.

Social Services And Accountability

But Westside officials note that violent crime isn’t only a law enforcement issue, residents also need more mental health and financial support.

Tupola, who represents the district from Ewa Beach to Kaena Point, plans to create a system that would direct resources to neighborhoods that have been the site of violent crimes.

The system would involve a partnership between the state’s Department of Human Services and private mental health providers, including Native Hawaiian specialists in the Waianae area, to knock on doors and assess families in affected areas.

She would also like to see city outreach workers check in on families to ask if they need help applying for existing financial aid programs, like utility and rental assistance. 

“There should be a period of time after a crime happens where that area is given those extra home visits from professionals that kind of assess, not just the affected families, but families in the area that were traumatized by the incident, that might be somewhat connected to the incident but not participating in it, that still kind of feel the stress,” she said, “because those stressors don’t just go away overnight.” 

State Rep. Cedric Gates, who represents Waianae, Makaha, Makua and a portion of Maili and is running for Senate District 22, said he is working on legislation to establish a community hub in Waianae that could serve as a teen center and drop-in center for adults seeking government services and resources from local nonprofits.

He said he hopes to appropriate $3 million to $5 million in capital improvement project funds to purchase an existing building on the Waianae Coast and turn it into a community center. He would like the state Department of Human Services, or another agency like the Office of Community Service, to operate the center but doesn’t yet know what the operating budget would be.

State Rep. Diamond Garcia, who represents Ewa and Kapolei, said he wants government officials to learn from the rampage on Waianae Valley Road that killed three women before a resident shot to death the attacker at the end of August. 

The shooting was preceded by a party at an unpermitted venue known locally as the Silva Dome, and the neighboring family, the Keamos, had pleaded for help from state officials years prior. 

Garcia plans to craft legislation aimed at holding government agencies, like the city’s Department of Planning and Permitting, accountable for following up on complaints.

“There needs to be some kind of verification process where there’s proof of follow up,” he said. “What’s the point of taxpayers funding government services if they’re not going to serve the people?” 

DPP Director Dawn Apuna said in a previous interview that inspectors did follow up to investigate after the Keamos wrote a letter complaining about a disruptive illegal party at the Silva Dome in 2021. But residents still expressed disappointment that more wasn’t done to shut down operations on the property.

Samantha DeCorte, chair of Nanakuli-Maili Neighborhood Board, who is running against Gates for the Senate seat that covers Ko Olina, Nanakuli, Maili, Waianae, Makaha and Makua, agrees.

“We should be using this as an example of how to safeguard our communities moving forward because we have a lot of unpermitted venues on the Westside,” she said, speaking Sunday at a memorial service in Honolulu for one of the victims of the Waianae Valley Road shooting.

Building Community Pride

Tupola said many of her constituents have said they want to see the area along Farrington Highway surrounding the Waianae bridge, the Waianae Boat Harbor and the Kulia I Ka Nuu housing complex in the Uluwehi subdivision fixed up. 

Many of the buildings in the area are run down, fences are broken and a large homeless population is concentrated in the harbor area. A 31-year-old man was shot and killed at the harbor on Aug. 6 , and a 15-year-old and a 19-year-old were wounded by gunshots at the housing complex on Aug. 15.

Val Tavai, senior community services manager for the Honolulu Community Action Program, a nonprofit located inside the boat harbor, said Tupola talked to her organization about getting more lighting for the harbor and commissioning an artist to paint along a fence that runs in front of the property.

“I think it’s nice,” she said, “beautifying the corridor and also trying to make it a little bit nicer so people feel more pride in their community.”

Tupola said she doesn’t yet have an estimate of how much her plan will cost, but she said funding will come from different sources. 

The Waianae Public Library, for example, has said it has funding available in its own budget to pay for some upgrades to its property. Tupola also said she may be able to get donations or find money in current budget line items to help with various improvements along the corridor, including the artwork for the fence. 

Some of the improvements, like lighting and CCTV cameras that she wants to see installed in the boat harbor would be funded by the state. Tupola also said she’s checking with the city to see if matching wooden signs can be fabricated for the buildings in the area to make everything look more unified. 

Tiana Wilbur, a member of the Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board, said the city should direct additional funding to Waianae’s parks, including Waianae District Park, which is adjacent to the harbor, as well as build more football fields and a community pool.

Tupola is aiming to start on her Waianae corridor revitalization before the end of the year. She hopes the plan, combined with other efforts to bring social and mental health services to residents, will deter crime and help people feel safer and happier where they live.  

“I just want it to look beautiful so we can start to really take pride in that area,” she said. “And also I need to flood all of these areas that have been affected with resources.”