A 32-year-old Hawi man died Saturday of an apparent accidental gunshot wound.
A 32-year-old Hawi man died Saturday of an apparent accidental gunshot wound.
He has been identified as Aaron Kondo, according to the Hawaii Police Department.
At 8:30 p.m. Saturday, North Kohala police responded to a report of an unconscious man with a hole in his chest in Kapaau. Responding officers arrived to find Fire Department personnel attempting cardio-pulmonary resuscitation. Kondo was taken to Kohala Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:55 p.m.
Police learned that he had driven a pickup truck to go check pig traps on private property off Kekoa Uhane Road. When he failed to return home, family members went to check on his welfare and found him next to the truck and unresponsive with a wound to the left side of his chest.
Detectives from the Area II Criminal Investigation Section determined that a rifle had been stored in the cab of Kondo’s truck and that when Kondo attempted to pull it out of the truck by the barrel, an item inside the truck caught on the gun’s trigger, causing it to discharge.
An autopsy has been scheduled to determine the exact cause of death.
The case is classified as a coroner’s inquest.