Ambassador wants public disclosure in shooting of Lindani Myeni

South Africa’s ambassador to the United States requested the return of her deceased citizen’s wedding ring, clothes and mobile phone and called on Honolulu, U.S. officials and departments across the country to be more transparent about police shootings and how race relations affect law enforcement practices.

In an interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Ambassador Nomaindiya Cathleen Mfeketo said South Africans are outraged by the death of 29-year-old Lindani Myeni, who was shot and killed during a fight with three Honolulu Police officers responding to a 911 call of an unarmed man wandering into and then out of a home on Coelho Way in Nuuanu.

“There is no information that will bring closure for Lindsay, his wife, and the family. It’s even worse that the personal belongings of Mr. Myeni are still in the custody of Honolulu police, including his clothes, marital ring and mobile phone,” Mfeketo said. “And just the information. The family needs to communicate with relatives about what happened … so they may have that feeling … of now you know what happened. The marital ring, the cellphone, those are sensitive things to Lindsay and his family. So how do they bring closure?”

Lindani Myeni’s death and the lack of information released by authorities investigating the shooting sparked protests in front of every U.S. mission in South Africa, she said.

The incident raised the specter of South Africa’s apartheid past, when white police officers played off legislated segregation and racist policies to brutalize and kill Black suspects with few, if any, public consequences.

“I’m sure that anger is also linked to what is happening in this country where there are lots of Black people being shot and you don’t get the information,” said Mfeketo, speaking from South Africa’s embassy in Washington, D.C. “They (Honolulu police) are not talking to anybody. They are busy with their own investigation. But we sent a note saying please, explain to us.”

No additional information in the case is being released at this time, according to Honolulu police.

“The Honolulu Police Department is continuing this investigation and will be turning over the findings to the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney and the Hawaii Law Enforcement Officer Independent Review Board,” said Michelle Yu, an HPD spokeswoman.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of State’s mission to South Africa did not answer questions or respond to requests for comment. Mayor Rick Blangiardi declined to comment.

Mfeketo’s office and South Africa’s consulate in Los Angeles also have not received information from the city prosecuting attorney or the office of the city Corporation Counsel, which is defending the city in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Lindsay Myeni.

During an April 29 press conference, in response to questions about whether he would ask HPD not to release any information in the case before the internal investigations were complete, city Prosecuting Attorney Steven S. Alm said it’s not his responsibility to tell other agencies or departments what they can or cannot make public.

“Each agency has their own criteria, interest and I’ve seen it in other places where the mayor may want to release it,” he said during the news conference. “That’s not my kuleana.”

Alm said as prosecutors, his office would not release information before its own investigation concludes.

Since that news conference, Alm reversed course and asked the city Corporation Counsel’s office to file a motion to stop the disclosure of any information during the proceedings of the wrongful death suit brought against the three officers and the city until the city prosecutor’s investigations are complete. First Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Tom Brady signed a declaration in support that will be attached to the Corporation Counsel’s motion.

“It’s going to be hard to argue with my more cynical colleagues who say the fix is in,” Jim Bickerton, who represents the Myeni family, told the Star-Advertiser. “It is clearly at odds with what he told me and the press two weeks ago. If the goal was to restore public trust in the process, the City just made the climb a lot steeper.”

The motion seeks to stop the depositions of the woman who called 911, Shiying “Sabine” Wang; her husband, Da Ju “Dexter” Wang; and the registered owner of the home, James H. Hall and more than 20 other categories of disclosure, including police dispatch transcripts, footage from cameras on and near the home, and the text messages of neighbors.

It is important that the prosecuting attorney’s criminal investigation be allowed to proceed before discovery takes place in the civil lawsuit, Alm told the Star-Advertiser.

“This is so that this office’s investigation can be as productive and objective as possible. To be clear, we do not intend to forestall discovery in the civil matter for a prolonged period of time. We are committed to conducting an independent and thorough, yet expedited, investigation into this matter,” Alm said. “And in keeping with the independent nature of this investigation, the department has not transmitted any investigative material to the Corporation Counsel’s office.”

When asked whether it represented a conflict if city attorneys, defending the civil case, filed a motion to prevent disclosures until city prosecutors are done investigating Honolulu police, Deputy Corporation Counsel Krishna F. Jayaram said it did not.

“There is no conflict of interest. The motion was submitted to protect the integrity of the investigations that are currently ongoing. We are simply requesting time to allow the investigations to conclude before discovery and depositions in the civil matter commence,” Jayaram said. “The investigations are independent of our department.”

Ambassador Mfeketo said the U.S. should take a chapter from South Africa’s history and establish systems and government structures that make investigations into police shootings public from the start.

“In 1994 when we had our first president of a democratic country things were put in the open. In South Africa whether you are white or Black, you do something wrong, you have to tell everybody what you did. And everyone gets to know what happened,” she said. “We don’t have this police reform debate, not because there are not naughty police men and women, but once you put everything out in the open, then they are dealt with by the structures the government has in place. You don’t need to be a killer when you are the police. There are certain things you can do to stop people you think are doing wrong, rather than killing them.”