The Hawaii police officer who was shot and killed during a call last week was struck just above her ballistic vest, and body camera footage captured the moments after the fatal shot.
“This is very much a raw and real deep open wound, and that open wound is going to stay open for a long time, and maybe if we’re lucky, maybe it will close, but it’s going to scar,” Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said during a news conference about the killing of Officer Suzanne, according to Honolulu Civil Beat.
O, a five-year veteran with the department, was responding to a terroristic threatening call in Pa'ia on Aug. 15 when the shooting happened. A groundskeeper on the property told authorities that the trespassing suspect—later identified as Clembert Kaneholani—had fired multiple shots at him.
While O was searching the scene, Kaneholani opened fire from behind a concrete pillar. O was struck in the chest, and body camera footage shows another officer running toward the shots and confronting the suspect.
“Unfortunately, (O) had her flashlight in her left hand, and she got shot directly from the left side of her body, and it went in about an inch above her ballistic vest,” Det. Jeffrey Calibuso said during the news conference.
