Community leaders say closure of illegal party venue could have prevented mass shooting in Waianae

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Waianae Community leaders say this weekend’s mass shooting could have been prevented if they had closed the illegal party venue located on murderer Hiram Silva’s property.

While the city denies any connection, many in the community say the illegal business is the genesis of the violence.

The large fabric Quonset hut, equipped with heavy-duty air conditioning and manicured landscaping, is so well known in the community that it even has a nickname: “The Silva Dome.”

For years, it has been illegally rented out for funerals, weddings, graduation parties and even concerts.

Patty Kahanamoku Teruya served as president of the Waianae Beach Neighborhood Board for 29 years until last year.

He said disturbances around the dome frequently come up at board meetings, which city and elected officials always attend.

“So I’ll be very clear: People knew about it, and no one could see that they didn’t know what was going on because they probably rented that space for a party, too,” he said. “Neighbors would continue to voice concerns about drinking, racing up and down, partying late at night; they had to put up with that.”

The Quonset is located on Silva’s property next to a narrow access road that runs past several homes, including the Keamos. On Saturday, after the Keamos attacked partygoers who were burning tires on the road, Silva attacked the Keamos with his front-end loader, fuel drums that he tried to blow up and three guns.

Neighborhood leaders, including current board chairman Philip Ganaban, dispute the police’s characterization of the attack as a neighborhood fight.

“It wasn’t technically a family feud,” Ganaban said after meeting with the Keamo family on Monday. “Again, it was an issue with the people who rented that party, that Dome. He (Silva) had issues with them, he made complaints about the people who rented the place.”

Michael Green, the Keamo family’s attorney, said he would investigate the city as a potential defendant in seeking compensation for the family and the destroyed home.

“It wasn’t just a shack, cars were racing up and down the street. They were complaining about it. People were slashing tires with their cars. He was complaining about it too. And they were there before and the cops were there. And I think this guy just said enough is enough,” Green said.

The city declined to provide any officials who would respond to Hawaii News Now’s questions about sanctions against the party venue.

But the city’s planning and permitting department says it issued a violation notice in April 2021 about an unauthorized structure after receiving its only complaint, not about illegal parties. The notice warns of a fine if Silva doesn’t get a permit or demolish it within a month, but inspectors didn’t follow up or issue threatened fines while the parties continued, and the Silvas didn’t respond to requests to inspect the property, he said.

The issue arose Tuesday night as the Neighborhood Board grappled with the tragedy and what may have caused it.

Board member Mae Perry specifically linked the operation of the Dome to the tragedy.

“The lesson is, maybe the city needs to be more progressive about this breach,” Perry said. “Maybe if they had been more progressive, then maybe this incident wouldn’t have happened. Maybe the Dome wouldn’t be there.”

Member Chris Masuoka said he had no say on whether the incident could have been prevented but was equally disappointed that no action had been taken, especially since Silva had been fined for illegal grading and dumping and his property had been seized.

“Why not be proactive? Everything seems to be reactive,” he said.

Speaking via Zoom City, DPP director Dawn Apuna told the board: “I think, that’s a big question, then these are the processes that are set out within the regulations that we have to comply with.”

But former board chairman Teruya says the city knows more than it’s admitting.

“You could have closed it. There’s so much more you could have done. You don’t need to make excuses like that today,” he said.

“We wouldn’t be talking about it here, or it probably wouldn’t have happened. Because of the Dome and the appeal of it. So, you know, the DPP can say whatever they want. They always have a lack of enforcement. HPD has a lack of enforcement, and that’s what we keep hearing on Waianae Beach.”

On Wednesday afternoon, the city issued a second statement: “The City believes it is inappropriate to charge an organization for the criminal conduct of an individual.” The statement also said, “The DPP could not have foreseen these events, and the City does not believe there is any relationship between the DPP’s permitting authority and the extreme actions for which Mr. Silva is personally responsible.”