Walmart stabbing suspect indicted on 2 charges

Leila Fujimori, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
·2 min read

COURTESY PHOTO Kealoha Tapu 1 /1 COURTESY PHOTO Kealoha Tapu An Oahu grand jury Wednesday indicted a 33-year-old man on one count of second-degree attempted murder in the June 15 stabbing of a 32-year-old Walmart employee outside the Keeaumoku Street Walmart store.

Kealoha Tapu also was indicted on a charge of first-degree terroristic threatening for allegedly threatening a security guard at Ward Centre with a knife earlier that night.

At about 8 :15 p.m.

June 15, security guard Kamuela Strong-Balora, making checks, roused a man who was sleeping against the building on the Ala Moana Boulevard side of 1200 Ward Ave. and told him to leave, a court document filed in the terroristic threatening case said.

When he told the man he would have to issue him a one-year ban from the property, the man brandished a 5-to 6-inch knife and said, “get the f—out of here, ” while charging at Strong-Balora, who was using his cellphone to make a video of the man, the court document said.

Then at about 9 :55 p.m. June 15, a man matching the description from the Ward Centre incident tried to rob a 32-year-old man standing outside the Keeaumoku Walmart and stabbed him in the chest with a kitchen knife, police homicide Lt. Deena Thoemmes said.

The man fled, but left behind a backpack and knife at the Keeaumoku crime scene, police said.

A Walmart spokesperson identified the stabbing victim as a store employee.

The indictment identifies him as Desmond Moananu, who police said was critically injured.

Police arrested Tapu on June 19 at North Nimitz Highway and Ahua Street on suspicion of first-degree terroristic threatening and second-degree attempted murder.

Tapu is being held without bail at the Oahu Community Correctional Center.

Tapa’s only conviction on the state’s Criminal Justice Data Center’s online database is from Nov. 29 for second-degree criminal trespassing, a petty misdemeanor.

In that case, Tapu was charged with trespassing Nov. 28 at a Department of Education school for remaining on the premises between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.