On trial for murder in Hawaii is Diplomatic Security Service Special Agent (DS) Christopher Deedy. On Saturday, November 5th, 2011, DS Deedy in Hawaii on security assignment for APEC, early that morning walked into a Waikiki McDonald's and left charged with Murder in the Second Degree and Use of a Firearm in the Commission of a Separate Felony. Hours before the shooting Waikiki was overflowing with people, families with kids in tow, baby strollers, couples old, young, every kind, bums, well-heeled, everybody and anybody. I was moving from a Honolulu neighborhood to the West Side during all this activity and was detoured through Waikiki where it was bumper to bumper and a very slow drive. By the time Deedy shot a local man named Kollin Elderts I was in our new place. When I woke up Deedy shot a local man and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) was one security person short on duty.
Deedy fatally shot Kollin Elberts, a local guy of no particular profession. His Facebook page's profile pic that morning showed him waving a Heineken from inside a darkened bar.
One hollow-point bullet struck Elderts in the chest, killing him.
Jennifer Sinco Kelleher writing for Huffpo asserts Deedy was drunk.
Just a few months before while walking my dog at the old condo's grassy lot where dog owners from the building meet, the Army guy with the wire haired terrier sported two black eyes and bruises up and down his arms. He was jumped from behind by several men the night before after drinking alone in a Waikiki bar. The bar was closed, he was standing outside waiting for a cab in civilian clothes and was grabbed by the neck from behind and beaten. He never got a good look at his attackers. He filed no charges. When Deedy killed Elbert the beatings stopped for the APEC duration.
Seven months before this murder 27-year-old Deedy was on a team mission to establish a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi.
For now the trial has become a he said, she said.
Jury in Deedy murder trial hear conflicting stories during opening statements
Why a white federal agent acted aggressively while here for just a few hours after arriving as a visitor as a federal employee to a state that is culturally very different from the other 49 and commit a fatal shooting in a McDonald's with witnesses in the most tourist heavy sector of Oahu killing a local brown man and had not the forethought or something to call local police.
Nevertheless, an armed federal agent did arrive in Hawaii early for a security detail during a world leader's meeting, went bar hopping, hours later kills a local resident.
Deedy has been out on bail since the shooting, working a desk job at the State Department on full salary.
Deedy Done It Different
8:19 PM PT: *Update*
The following is excerpted from the Honolulu Civil Beat regarding Deedy's situation and the trial.
Racism in Hawaii.
“The issue of Hawaii history, I think that’s kind of a lingering cloud over the present,”said Kyle Kajihiro, of Hawaii Peace & Justice, a nonprofit group dedicated to demilitarization and social equality. “The fact that Hawaii was an independent nation and that it was overthrown by the unlawful military intentions of the U.S., that has never been resolved. There’s never been rectification for that.”
Kajihiro was involved in some of the protests during APEC, including the one that was put together after Elderts’ death. At that time, he said, the shooting symbolized the ramifications of APEC’s policies around the world.
Now, nearly eight months after the killing in Waikiki, Kajihiro says he still understands why Elderts’ death can represent more than just a tragedy. This resonates more when considering Deedy was an armed federal agent who was here as part of a larger, more visible police presence.
And while he admits there’s a significant amount of cultural and ethnic friction in Hawaii, he believes it can be acknowledged and set aside when putting a man on trial, even if he’s a haole from from the mainland.
http://www.civilbeat.com/...