HPD: Kea’au Man Charged with Numerous Offenses

Two men have been arrested for a variety of offenses that began with an incident early Monday morning in Hilo, where an officer attempting to make a traffic stop was injured before the driver fled.

According to the Hawai’i Police Department, officers went to a house Monday afternoon on the 500 block of East Kahaopea Street at 3 p.m. to arrest a possible suspect on unrelated warrants.

During the attempted arrest of 20-year-old Draven Torres-Souza, minor injuries were caused by the suspect to two officers. At the same time, 22-year-old Hilo man Joshua Domen physically tried to prevent a third officer from making the arrest.

HPD says none of the officers required medical treatment.

Officers arrested the pair and they were taken to the Hilo police cellblock.

Torres-Souza, of Kea’au was charged with failure to appear, contempt of court, and violating terms of release on bail. He appeared in court on Tuesday for the warrant charge, and was then taken to the Hawai’i Community Correctional Center as detectives continued to investigate additional incidents.

An investigation led to the determination that Torres-Souza had operated the sedan on Monday that collided with a police vehicle in the “Isles” parking lot off Lihiwai Street. According to HPD, Torres-Souza fled on foot after the incident.

The collision caused injury to one of the officers, who was treated at Hilo Medical Center for substantial but non-life-threatening injuries. The officer was later released.

On Tuesday evening, Torres Souza was charged with resisting an order to stop, first-degree criminal property damage, driving without a license, leaving the scene of an accident involving substantial bodily injury, and three counts of assaulting a police officer.

Torres-Souza’s bail was set at $67,000.

HPD charged Domen, of Hilo, with first-degree hindering prosecution. His bail was set at $2,000.

Both Torres-Souza and Domen will appear in court Wednesday afternoon.