Police Identify Man Arrested in Pāhoa Standoff

Authorities have identified a man involved in a nearly 24-hour standoff with police that forced several evacuations of nearby homes in the Nanawale Subdivision.

Sixty-five-year-old Dean Hisao Jones was arrested taken into custody without incident at 11:34 a.m. on Friday. The incident initially began Thursday afternoon. According to Hawai‘i police, Jones allegedly discharged a firearm fronting a residence on Plumeria Street in the Nanawale Subdivision.

“Responding officers learned that Jones entered a residence of a former acquaintance, with the firearm and barricaded himself there,” HPD reported in a press release Friday evening.

HPD’s Special Response Team used an armored vehicle to approach the home. At that point, officers confirmed Jones was in the residence and negotiators initiated contact. However, the Puna man refused to exit the home.

The homeowner, a 53-year-old woman, eventually left the residence on her own and met with police detectives. She was not injured during the incident.

Nearby residents were evacuated for safety, as the standoff lasted throughout the night and into this morning.

Around 11:30 a.m. today, negotiators continued their efforts until Jones eventually exited the residence and was taken into custody without incident. He is being held in the police cellblock for first-degree reckless endangering, abuse of a family/household member, and first-degree terroristic threatening.

Additional charges are pending while detectives from the Area I Criminal Investigation Section continue the investigation.

While executing a search warrant at the home, police recovered a firearm, ammunition and drugs.

Anyone who may have information regarding this incident is asked to call Detective Grant Todd of the Area I Criminal Investigation Section at 808-961-2381 or email at grant.todd@hawaiicounty.gov.