Man Shot By Police Was Undergoing Court-Ordered Mental Health Treatment

The man who was shot by Honolulu police officers last week had been undergoing court-ordered substance abuse and mental health treatment before his death, according to court records.

The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office identified him Tuesday as 50-year-old Sonny Siofele and said he died of a gunshot wound to the chest. Court records show he also went by Perry Pauli.

Two officers shot at Siofele outside The Queen’s Medical Center at around 10:20 a.m. Thursday after he pulled a handgun from his waistband.

He was brought to The Queen’s Medical Center and pronounced dead shortly after the shooting.

Court records show Siofele had been involved in the criminal justice system for decades. Contact information for his family members could not be found.

Repeated Violations Of Supervised Release

Siofele served just over 11 years in prison after a 1999 conviction on two felonies related to methamphetamine possession.

In 2018, he was convicted of two counts of assault on a law enforcement officer.

He served two months in prison after the conviction and was sentenced to 10 years of supervised release, according to a July 9 report from his probation officer, Marissa Nahina, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaiʻi. Over the next seven years, he would repeatedly violate the terms of his release, including the requirement to stay clean and sober.

In 2019, he failed to comply with the regulations of a residential reentry center as well as the Sand Island Treatment Center, a substance abuse treatment program in Honolulu.

In 2021, he admitted to drinking alcohol and violating the rules of Faith House, a halfway house where he was living.

Two years later, he pleaded guilty to criminal property damage. At the time, he was also failing to take his prescribed mental health medication, according to Nahina’s report.

He was sentenced to two months in prison and just over four years of supervised release.

Probation Officer Saw Progress

In the months before his death, Siofele attended weekly meetings with his probation officer where he participated in one-on-one journaling sessions focused on self control, the report says. He had also been prescribed an antipsychotic medication and was attending weekly sessions at Action With Aloha, which offers behavioral health and substance abuse counseling.

As of August 2024, he was living at Faith House and working part time at a cleaning company, though it’s unclear if he was still living there at the time of his death.

In July, Siofele told his probation officer that he drank alcohol and smoked marijuana laced with cocaine.

He said he had argued with someone at work and after work bought two “fortys” of alcohol and went for a walk to “quiet the voices” in his head, the report says.

His probation officer recommended additional structure to help him “re-stabilize,” though she also noted he’d made progress.

“While he has acknowledged his drug use, Mr. Siofele has demonstrated notable progress in managing his mental health symptoms compared to previous terms of supervision and continues to show motivation to work collaboratively with” probation officers, the report says.

Nahina recommended he be sentenced to 60 days of home detention and only be allowed to leave for approved activities. She also recommended that he be assessed to determine whether a higher level of substance abuse treatment was necessary and continue his weekly journaling sessions with the probation office.

A judge signed off on the recommendations on July 7. It is unclear what Siofele’s status was after that.

Honolulu police Interim Chief Rade Vanic said at a press conference last week that the department has body camera footage of the shooting but has not yet released it.

Vanic said that police had just received a call from someone who said a man outside the hospital was expressing suicidal thoughts and had a firearm. He also said he believed the officers who shot Siofele were following protocol for how to deal with an armed person.

It was the second fatal police shooting on Oʻahu so far this year.

Officers shot and killed 37-year-old Christian Latimore at Keʻehi Boat Harbor on June 22 after witnesses reported he was firing a gun at people on another boat. Latimore barricaded himself inside a boat armed with a hammer, a long gun and a sword. Officers shot him after he came out of the hatch and pointed a shotgun at them.

Officers shot and injured another man June 24 in Mākaha after he rammed an unmarked police vehicle that had been following him, causing it to catch fire.