Officer of the Month: Reuben Pukahi 11-05-14

Hawaiʻi Police Department
Office of the Chief
Chief Harry S. Kubojiri
Phone: 962-2244

 

Media Release

The Kona Crime Prevention Committee recognized Officer Reuben Pukahi as “Officer of the Month” for November in a luncheon ceremony Wednesday (November 5) at Huggo’s restaurant in Kailua-Kona.

Pukahi was honored for his role in rescuing a man who had tried to kill himself.

On June 10, police were looking for a man who had threatened to harm himself. Officer Pukahi knew the man and offered to help the officers who were assigned to the case. They went to the man’s house and found him not breathing along with clear evidence that he had attempted suicide. Officer Pukahi pulled the man to safety and began to administer chest compressions in rotation with other officers. By the time Fire Department rescue personnel arrived, the man had a strong heartbeat and was breathing. When police checked on him a few days later, he was in stable condition, awake and talking.

Sergeant David Araki said it is because of Pukahi’s efforts that the man is alive today. “It is not too common that a person is actually able to look at what he has done and say that he made a difference in someone’s life,” Araki wrote in nomination papers. Araki called Pukahi’s actions “a shining example why people become police officers.”

As “Officer of the Month,” Pukahi is eligible to become “Officer of the Year.”

The Kona Crime Prevention Committee is an organization that encourages community involvement in aiding and supporting police in West Hawaiʻi.


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