Rishard Keamo-Carnate was enjoying a Labor Day weekend party with family and friends in Honolulu, Hawaii when his neighbor Hiram Silva crashed the gathering with a front-end loader, smashing several cars before climbing down from the cab and shooting multiple partygoers. Three women were killed in the shootings and two others were injured before Carnate put a stop to the carnage by shooting and killing Silva.
Keamo-Carnate's heroism saved countless lives that night, but when police showed up to investigate, he was placed in handcuffs and arrested on second-degree murder charges.
It took nearly two weeks for investigators to finally determine that, "oh, hey, maybe we shouldn't prosecute this guy who saved a bunch of lives on his own property just because this is Hawaii and 'Guns Bad.'" https://t.co/zu3kHJAKGF
— Amy Swearer (@AmySwearer) September 30, 2024
There were plenty of eyewitnesses to Silva's rampage who attested to Keamo-Carnate's life-saving action, but as Swearer said, that didn't stop police from charging the armed citizen with the "crime" of protecting his friends and neighbors with deadly force. Two weeks went by before prosecutors dropped the charges after determining that Keamo-Carnate had indeed used justifiable force to stop the attack.
Keamo-Carnate and his wife, Alison, tell Hawaii News Now their family lived in fear of Silva for three years, and armed themselves because of his threats.
“The turning point was when our kids got scared. That’s when we decided we had to change something and do something different, because our kids should not be fearful of our home or where we live,” said Alison Keamo-Carnate.
The real fear began in March 2021, when Silva shone a light onto the Keamo-Carnates’ property, and threatened to kill them after they complained about an illegal concert during the pandemic.
“We called the cops, and the cops said I can’t do nothing about it, because they can’t just go into somebody’s property because he had the gate. I felt kind of discouraged,” said Rishard Keamo-Carnate.
“We never owned guns. We didn’t like guns. We purchased it after we was threatened,” he added. “They just basically collected dust. We never know if we were going to use it.”
Then on Aug. 31, 2024, Rishard and Alison went to the Silvas to stop partygoers speeding on the narrow road they shared.
Rishard Keamo-Carnate said he spoke to Silva’s wife. “Sandy came out yelling at what we doing on their property? I said, ‘We tired, Sandy. The speeding’s got to stop.’ It de-escalated less than five minutes, 10 minutes. We’re on our way. We said our apologies to her; she said our apologies to us,” he said.
“We said, ‘We’re sorry. We love you guys. Sorry for bothering you guys, for ruining you guys party, but just let them know about the speeding.”
Alison Keamo-Carnate added, “There was a confrontation, but we handled it.”
About an hour and a half later, there was a low humming noise, like an idling engine, and Silva’s front loader appeared.
Rishard Keamo-Carnate said his wife “started screaming, and (Silva) stopped right in our driveway. He down-shifted and just came right through, right through the first two trucks. Then he came to the second truck and the third truck. We were unaware if he had his gun or not, and then as soon as he got stuck, he started shooting.”
It should have been readily apparent to the investigating officers that Kearno-Carnate was acting in self-defense and in defense of others when he shot and killed his neighbor, but Honolulu police chief Joe Logan argued after the arrest that in Hawaii, gun owners have a duty to retreat rather than the right to stand their ground while they're being attacked.
He would not comment specifically on Carnate’s arrest, but Logan said anyone who discharges a firearm and injures another person in Hawaii will likely be arrested and investigated. They must be released after 48 hours if no charges are filed. Police then work with the prosecutor’s office to determine whether the suspect will be charged.
That determination has not yet been made in Carnate’s case, Logan said.
Honolulu Prosecutor Steve Alm did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Alm said Sunday that he does not comment on open investigations.
Logan said the handgun Carnate used was legally registered. Silva had two guns in his possession during the shooting — a pistol and a long gun — and neither was registered, he said.
Keamo-Carnate was in custody for 20 hours before he was allowed to go home, but it took almost two weeks more for prosecutors to officially determine that he was justified in using deadly force to stop his neighbor's killing spree.
The investigation into Silva's death isn't the issue here. Of course police are going to investigate every shooting. But when all of the evidence points to self-defense, why would Chief Logan or any other official in Honolulu believe that the armed citizen should be arrested and charged anyway? Swearer believes that Hawaii's traditional hostility towards the right to keep and bear arms is on full display with Keamo-Carnate's arrest, and it's hard to argue otherwise. Second Amendment advocates have made great strides in changing Hawaii's gun laws, but we still have a long way to go when it comes to changing the state's cultural taboos against gun ownership and armed self-defense.
