The End Of The World

There are things in this world which are difficult to understand, especially in a place where violent crime is not the norm.

In the past week, a man has a run-in with police and shoots and kills an officer. He flees and, enlisting help from acquaintances along the way, puts a county on alert. Another run-in and another and soon, with literally nowhere else to go, he is shot dead.

When he killed the officer and fled, he sealed his fate. He would have hours left to live. Had he given up at that point, he would have gone to jail for life, but that was not to be.

At one point, he was sighted within a mile or so of my house. For the first time in my life I stayed up all night worried, watching my surveillance cameras in the off chance he might cross my path. I am not known to violence, but would have shot him on sight knowing that a man who would shoot a police officer would have no qualms of shooting a citizen thought to be unarmed.

So after helicopter searches, most police in the county after him and 3 separate departments put a total of $30,000 reward on him, he is found in the trunk of a vehicle. As he is confronted, he fires a shot but is killed. Today he was out of places to run is accurate as he was killed at South Point, the most southern point of the United States with just the Pacific and Antarctica ahead.

You have to wonder what kind of friend would help you evade police, knowing that they too will likely spend most of the rest of their lives in prison.

At what point does a man start down the wrong path and end up like this, taking himself and others along?

I feel for the rest of the island residents and for the visitors who came here for some peace and quiet. It is sad enough that we have rivers of lava taking out a development and closing a National Park, perhaps forever, then added to that, a killer on the run with local and Federal officer in pursuit. It will take a while to recover here.

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/38673493/manhunt-continues-for-man-accused-in-puna-officers-fatal-shooting