Officer Wounded Responding to Domestic Dispute 01-10-01

HAWAII COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT
SOUTH KOHALA PATROL DISTRICT
SERGEANT HYLAND H. CHAR JR.
PHONE: 887-3080
JANUARY 10, 2001
G-54038

MEDIA RELEASE

A South Kohala patrol officer was wounded Wednesday (January 10, 2001) by a male suspect wielding a large knife before officers could subdue the assailant and arrest him.

Police are holding the suspect, identified as Dino Healer, also known as Dino Vallente, of a Lakeland address, for abuse of a household member and seven counts of attempted murder.

The incident began at 8:09 a.m., when Waimea police received a call of a domestic dispute in the Lakeland subdivision of South Kohala. The initial report indicated that a female had been struck in the head and nose and that her husband had locked himself in the bedroom with a knife.

Upon arriving at the scene with fire rescue personnel, police found the woman leaving the house with a bloody nose. After directing her to the rescue unit, the officers entered the house and identified themselves to the suspect locked in the bedroom.

As the officers were walking down a hallway, the suspect burst open the bedroom door and charged them with a large knife in his hand. The assailant slipped and fell to the floor, however, then stood up, ran back with the knife into the bedroom and shut the door.

After securing the scene, the responding officers called for backup. After attempting to talk the suspect into giving himself up, they then called for a crisis negotiator.

The negotiator talked to the suspect from outside the house and talked him into throwing a knife outside through the window. The negotiator then entered the house and showed the knife to the officers inside. The officers discovered that the knife didn’t resemble the one they had seen with the suspect in the hallway.

The officers again tried talking the suspect into surrendering, but after the man refused their repeated entreaties, the officers told him they were going to enter the bedroom.

About 11:50 a.m., the officers forced the door open about two feet when it was stopped by a metal serving cart.

As the officers tried to force the door open wider, the suspect jumped atop the cart and started slashing with the knife. The knife cut one of the officers on the top of his head.

The injured policeman, Officer Matthew Paschoal, 30, was taken to the North Hawaii Community Hospital, where his wound was stitched and he was later released.

After another unsuccessful attempt to talk the suspect into surrendering, the officers shot OC, or pepper, spray into the room several times, and the suspect finally gave himself up without a further struggle.

The suspect is being held in police custody pending further investigation by Kona Criminal Investigation Section detectives.

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