APEC’s first defining moments: 1 man dead, 8 arrested for peaceful protest

An alleged murder in Waikiki involving a federal agent and arrests of (De)Occupy Honolulu protesters have heralded the debut of APEC 2011.

Confusing details are emerging about the alleged killing of Kollin Elderts by off-duty APEC state department agent Christopher Deedy, an incident Ian Lind calls the “first defining moment of APEC”.

KHON reported that:

Witnesses say 27-year-old Christopher Deedy stayed with the victim, trying to stop his bleeding until EMS arrived.

“I walked out there was a guy covered in blood holding the guy’s chest just to keep him from bleeding to death,” Davus says.

Witnesses also say when police arrived, Deedy told them ” I was the one who shot him.”

But the Honolulu Star Advertiser report contradicts this account:

Deedy was identified and arrested a short distance away at 2234 Kuhio Ave. at 3 a.m.

[…]

A man wearing a collared shirt ran from the restaurant, heading in the Ewa direction, Evans said. Inside McDonald’s, Evans said, a man was holding on to the victim, trying to keep him from collapsing.

KHON also reported:

Witnesses say the 23 year-old man was shot once in the chest.

But Hawaii News Now reported several shots were fired.

“I heard bam and it woke me up. And I kind of stirred and wondered where that came from. And then I heard bam, bam, bam shortly after that,” Reinking told Hawaii News Now.

This was also corroborated by the Honolulu Star Advertiser:

Chuck Crowell, who is renting a unit at the Royal Kuhio vacation condominium across from the McDonald’s, said he was lying down in his room when he heard, “Pow! Pow! Then a pause. Then pow again.”

Hawaii News Now reports that

According to [Eldertsʻ] family, [Christopher Deedy] followed Elderts to the restaurant.

The Honolulu Star Advertiser reports that Deedy “has been charged with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony.”

What makes this tragic killing so creepy is that the government will not confirm that Deedy, a State Department security agent, is in Honolulu for APEC.   What are they hiding?

Meanwhile the nascent (De)Occupy Honolulu movement has launched its protests into the international news with the arrest of eight people Saturday night.  The protesters cited the first amendment and a Hawaiian law declared by Kamehameha I “Kanawai Mamala Hoe” (The Law of the Splintered Paddle” as their “permit” to be in the park after 10 pm in solidarity with the homelesss who have been swept from parks, overpasses and other safe havens to “clean up” Honolulu for the APEC invasion.  As the protesters said “Our rights do not end at 10 pm!”   Here’s a clip of their statement a moment before they were arrested:

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