South Kohala Officer Kayli Carr was recognized by the Hawai‘i Island Security and Safety Professionals Association (HISSPA) as HISSPA Officer of the Quarter for Q1 2022.

On Saturday, January 22, 2022, Officer Carr responded to a 911 call in which a crying woman reported that she was in the bed of a white pickup truck and had been “choked out”. The woman could not provide any further information.  Police dispatchers were able to obtain the cellular telephone’s GPS coordinates, relaying to responding officers that the phone was on Waikoloa Road near the 2-mile marker. 
 
At the time, Officer Carr was traveling south on Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway approaching the Waikoloa Road/Queen Ka‘ahumanu intersection when she saw a white, lifted Ford F250 pickup truck turning right onto Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway at a high speed. Officer Carr also saw a dark colored truck turning right onto Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway. 
 
Turning her vehicle around in an attempt to contact the driver of the white truck, Officer Carr was flagged down by the driver of the dark-colored truck who told her that the white truck was traveling at a high speed on Waikoloa Road and would slam its brakes for no apparent reason. After obtaining the driver’s name and contact information, she continued on Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway looking for the white truck but was unable to locate it.  She returned to Waikoloa Road and saw a woman standing on the shoulder of the road in the vicinity of the 1-mile marker. As she approached the woman, she observed that the female victim was injured and emotionally distressed. After requesting medical assistance from Hawai‘i Fire Department, Officer Carr was able to comfort and calm the victim.
 
As Officer Carr talked with the woman the victim repeatedly said she did not trust police officers and would shut down.  Officer Carr was able to empathize with the victim and learned that the suspect had befriended the victim a few weeks prior and  had been staying with the suspect for the previous week. Officer Carr also learned about a sexual assault perpetrated by the suspect two days prior. Through this victim statement, Officer Carr obtained the identity of the suspect and relayed the information to other responding officers in an attempt to locate the suspect. 
 
Officer Carr was able to provide valuable information to the Area II Juvenile Aid Section detectives, which aided them with completing this investigation. Within five hours of the initial incident, the suspect was identified, contacted, and arrested for abuse of a household or family member, kidnapping, and sexual assault in the second degree. Upon Area II Juvenile Aid Section detectives completing their investigation, the following charges were sent to the County Prosecutor’s Office for their review:

• abuse of household or family member
• unlawful imprisonment in the first degree
• three counts of sexual assault in the second degree
• one count of assault in the third degree
• one count of terroristic threatening in the second degree

Photo credit: Hawaiʻi County Police Department