HILO —The wife of a man fatally shot by police Saturday identified him as 59-year-old Gene Bernhardt of Papaaloa.
Kyra Pauli said Sunday by phone from off island that her husband, whom she described as a veteran who formerly worked in law enforcement, was “hyper vigilant” and “in fear for his life.”
“There was some damage to his tractor, and a vehicle he was texting me about … a gray vehicle, an SUV with three men and a woman, and one of them had a gun. And there’s something that was said to him,” Pauli explained.
In a written release Saturday night, police said that at about 3:35 p.m. they responded to a disturbance at a residence — identified in a police log as Bernhardt’s Papaaloa Road property — when they encountered a man wielding a crossbow.
An officer fired several shots, killing Bernhardt.
Pauli said she called police, and her husband had the crossbow because of feral pigs on the rural 14-acre spread.
“Sometimes, you get people who intrude on your property and he didn’t have any way to protect himself. … He was really alarmed,” she said. She added her husband had “hunkered down” next to his damaged tractor and she had urged him to go inside.
“His last words to me were, ‘I’m going to go keep the animals now,’” Pauli said. “… I called the police because Gene asked me to call. But I also called … before all this stuff happened to say, ‘Hey, I’m out of town. I just want you to check on Gene. He was feeling threatened. He’s on heightened alert. … But I can assure you, he’s not someone to hurt himself or hurt someone else.’”
Pauli said she received assurances police would look in on her husband.
“This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen. I didn’t want something to escalate and someone to get hurt,” she said. “… Some things got crossed, and what happened, happened. And it’s unfortunate. There’s no right or wrong. There’s just people responding, interacting, not having the complete picture.”
Pauli described Bernhardt as “a good-hearted soul.”
“He’s forever where his spirit has taken him,” she said. “He loved the land. He loved the people. He really wanted to help the widows, the elderly and the kids. Like many people who come here, he just wanted peace.
“It’s hard when you can’t defend yourself. It’s really difficult. People just need to be kind. This is the real world; this is not a war zone. And we’re just so blessed to have what we have. We’re really blessed to live where we live.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
