HAWAII COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT
HILO CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DIVISION
CAPTAIN SAMUEL THOMAS
PHONE: 961-2251
FEBRUARY 21, 2003
DAVID R. FIELD
…surrenders after overnight standoff
MEDIA RELEASE UPDATE
Police arrested a 33-year-old suspect Friday (February 21, 2003) on a variety of felony offenses stemming from an armed standoff with Hilo police officers overnight.
The gunman, identified as David R. Field, of Hilo, is being held at the Hilo police cellblock without bail pending investigation of kidnapping, terroristic threatening, possession of a firearm in commission of a felony, being a felon in possession of a firearm and other felony offenses.
Field was taken into custody at 9:45 a.m. Friday after officers first talked him into giving up a hostage and later surrendering himself to authorities.
The gunman had holed up in an eighth-floor room at the Naniloa Hotel on Banyan Drive and kept police at bay for more than 15 hours before surrendering without incident. Before he surrendered, police were forced to evacuate many of the 300 guests of the hotel.
After surrendering, Field was then taken to the Hilo Medical Center for treatment of injuries he sustained while fleeing from police. He was later transported to the Hilo police cellblock.
The ordeal began about 1 p.m. Thursday when Hawaii County police received information that a felon wanted on several warrants for contempt of court and revocation of probation had been located at the Naniloa Hotel.
Field had checked into a second-floor room at the hotel with a 19-year-old woman. The woman left the room followed by Field, who saw police officers and ran down the hallway and onto a second-floor balcony. Trying to flee pursuing officers, he then broke a plate glass window and jumped onto an overhang, then jumped up to an overhang on the third floor and broke another plate glass window and disappeared.
Field apparently had made it to the eighth floor, where he confronted a 51-year-old Maui man who had just checked into the hotel, brandished a .25-caliber semi-automatic handgun, took him hostage and barricaded himself and the hostage in the hostage’s room.
Pursuing police officers discovered the location of Field and his hostage, and the standoff began about 6:30 p.m.
Calling in the Special Response Team (SRT) and hostage negotiators, police then talked to the man and about 1 a.m. persuaded him to release the hostage unharmed. Later, they talked the suspect into giving himself up without incident.
Police are holding Field at the police cellblock without bail pending further investigation.
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