‘Blood everywhere’: Man rushes to aid of Wahiawa murder victim

WAHIAWA (HawaiiNewsNow) - Honolulu police are searching for an alleged killer after a crash overnight in Wahiawa led to a gory scene in a convenience store parking lot.

Exactly what happened is unclear as it remains under investigation. However, police confirmed a man crashed his vehicle in a Walgreens parking lot and was found with multiple apparent stab wounds.

He was later pronounced dead.

At around 12:40 a.m., Cliff Pruitt was walking alongside the south bound lane of Kamehameha Highway when he noticed the vehicle stopped in the road fronting Wendy’s.

“All of a sudden, I hear him like screaming down the street,” Pruitt recounted, talking about the driver speeding in his direction.

The driver jumped the curb by the bus stop, narrowly passed between utility poles, before he hit a tree, spun out, and came to a stop in the parking lot.

That’s when Pruitt ran to help.

“I run around the driver’s side and I open up the door and man ... There was so much blood. I mean just blood everywhere and I go to reach in to get him and he’s breathing like really heavy,” Pruitt said.

When first responders arrived, they pulled the man from the vehicle and said he had apparent stab wounds. He was taken to a hospital where he later died.

“I didn’t see the stab wounds, but I did see all the blood,” Pruitt said, holding back emotion. “He had blood down his legs, down his side, and everything else, and so I was like, ‘Oh my God, what just happened?’ And I didn’t learn till later that he ... he had died. I’ve never seen anybody die before.”

Lt. Deena Thoemmes, Honolulu Police Department, said initial witness reports didn’t show anyone else in the vehicle with him, though Pruitt said only the man’s dog was in the car.

News of this fatality shook members of the Wahiawa community.

“To see someone die right in front of you is, it’s kind of — it kind of takes you back,“ Pruitt said.

Surveillance cameras of the nearby Jas Beauty Salon caught the moments leading up to the crash.

“I’m very sad, of course. We’ve been here open four years and, I’ve never heard anything like that,” salon owner Jaquelin Gaoiran said.

The investigation remains active and police have not yet released details on the victim, nor is it known when or where he was stabbed.

The case has been classified as a second-degree murder investigation. At last check no arrests have been reported.

Anyone with information in this case is urged to call Honolulu Police.