Commissioners unsatisfied with Honolulu Police Department refusal to release shooting video

Two Honolulu police commissioners — including one who was state attorney general — are dissatisfied with the Honolulu Police Department’s refusal to release body camera footage from a fatal confrontation with Iremamber Sykap, 16, who was shot and killed this month following a series of alleged crimes that involved a police pursuit and a car careening into a canal.

Sykap’s death on April 5 was the first of two fatal officer-involved shootings of unarmed suspects this month. The Police Commission held a special meeting Wednesday, in part, to discuss the shootings. HPD officers killed burglary suspect Lindani Myeni, 29, after an April 14 fight in Nuuanu in which three officers were injured.

HPD Deputy Chief Aaron Takasaki-Young on Wednesday told police commissioners that officers recovered a replica firearm from the white Honda Civic that Sykap was driving, but not a functioning firearm.

HPD released body camera footage of Myeni’s shooting. But in the Sykap shooting, according to Takasaki-Young, state law prevents HPD from releasing footage of a juvenile while the alleged co-conspirators, also juveniles, remain the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation.

“Pursuant to the officer-involved shooting, three juveniles and two adults were subsequently arrested for offenses ranging from attempted murder to unlawful entry into a motor vehicle,” he told commissioners. “Those individuals have been released pending investigation. Body worn camera footage is not subject to release at this time.”

HPD’s refusal to release video of Sykap’s shooting did not sit well with some commissioners, who cited Wednesday’s release of body camera video by officials in Columbus, Ohio, in the shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant, 16. The video was released with Bryant’s face blurred.

“I don’t understand how civil litigation or the existence of an ongoing investigation prevents the release of the body cam footage,” said Honolulu Police Commissioner Doug Chin, Hawaii’s former lieutenant governor, former state Attorney General and a former Honolulu deputy prosecutor. “I think that’s the part that doesn’t make sense to the public. If the camera says what the camera says, why not just release it? I understand that’s the department’s position. But what we’re trying to wrap our heads around is what prevents it from getting released simply to show what happened when the shots were fired? The footage is not going to change.”

Sykap was driving a Honda being pursued by police from East Honolulu until he drove at officers while steering the wrong way on Kalakaua Avenue before going off the road and into a canal along Kalakaua, according to HPD. Police said the vehicle was involved in a robbery about 20 minutes before it ended up in the canal.

Police Commissioner Michael Broderick, also an attorney, asked Takasaki-Young on Wednesday why HPD could not release officers’ body cam video that blurred Sykap’s face, as officials in Ohio did.

Without the video, Broderick told Takasaki-Young that questions remain about HPD officers’ use of deadly force.

Takasaki-Young did not offer a direct response. Instead, he said that officers had few options as the Honda bore down on them.

“The purpose of them using force, I have to say the situation they were involved in rapidly turned dynamic,” Takasaki-Young said. “Given the situation, the officers felt their best option (was) to use force that, unfortunately, resulted in the discharge of their firearms. I don’t think officers go into work everyday, commissioner, thinking that we’re going to discharge our firearms. That’s probably the last thing they want. The situations and our reactions are to the conduct and behavior we respond to. They have nothing to do with somebody’s ethnic makeup or gender makeup.”

Chin took issue with Takasaki-Young’s response to Broderick.

“That’s highly offensive,” Chin said. “I don’t think Commissioner Broderick was at all trying to imply something like that. And for you to insinuate that commissioners think that — we don’t at all think that about police officers. That’s not what his question was going at. He wants to know why the body cam footage was not released.”

Takasaki-Young said he did not intend to offend the commission.

Joshua Wisch, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union Hawaii, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that HPD must release all body cam video, 911 call recordings and other evidence related to the shooting deaths of Sykap, who was Micronesian, and Myeni, a native of South Africa.

“We saw at today’s Honolulu Police Commission meeting that HPD is continuing to stonewall, refusing to release footage of Iremamber Sykap’s killing,” Wisch said. “This is simply wrong. HPD doesn’t get to choose what information is relevant. They should release all the body camera footage of Iremamber Sykap’s killing, of Lindani Myeni’s killing, as well as the 911 calls. Police departments on the continent are able to do this and HPD should as well.”