HONOLULU (KHON2) — Witnesses said they thought a bomb had gone off after a car slammed into two parked cars on Catherine Street and Kanaina Avenue in the Kapahulu area at 7:11 p.m. on Saturday night, June 3.
Surveillance footage showed the moment after impact with debris flying across the small road and dust in the air. A woman is heard screaming on the surveillance footage who was in a house that was hit during the crash.
“I was just sitting in my living room and I heard ‘POW’, a very strong sound. And I came out; and my neighbors came out, too,” explained Ana Paula Rudd, who lives a few houses down from where the crash happened.
“We didn’t know which direction to go, and my neighbor pointed toward the car. And we came over here, and we saw the three cars messed up,” Rudd continued.
Another neighbor spoke to us, too.
“I heard this big boom, and we all thought it was a bomb. So, I came out; and there’s a car in the middle of the road,” said Norina who also lives on the street and heard the crash.
Multiple witnesses said a black Tesla came barreling down Catherine Street at an extremely high rate of speed. One mom who lives nearby compared it to how fast cars go on the freeway.
Another witness who lives towards the top of Catherine Street said her neighbor had just gotten home and opened her car door when the car raced by and almost took the door off. The woman’s children were in the car at the time.
Many people said there are so many kids in the area and on that road; and it’s a miracle no one was injured, other than the driver.
Honolulu Emergency Medical Services said paramedics treated a 36-year-old male on the scene and transported him to a hospital in serious condition.
The crash was so extreme it knocked over dozens of concrete brick cylinders on one end of the street and took out a wired fence on the other side of the street, even pushing a part of the home off of its foundation.
“It looked like war; it looked like a war hit here,” Rudd said.
Rudd and others said the man tried to run off. Surveillance footage showed a person running towards the main road with multiple people screaming, “Stop him.”
“When I saw the guy, he came walking this way; and he had blood all over his face. He didn’t know where to go, but he tried to leave,” Rudd added.
“Fire and ambulance came; the cops took a little longer. But he tried to run away again; and then, he was taken inside the ambulance. Then the cops came, and he tried to jump out of the ambulance,” she said.
Rudd said something fell from the driver’s pocket. Police were notified, and she said Honolulu Police Department grabbed the item.
“There was kids here. There were guests here. There were kids everywhere. It could have been worse. He could have killed some kids. He was going so fast,” Rudd added.
Norina was thankful for a miracle.
“With the amount of damage done, it was a miracle no one was hurt. Yes, the fences are down and cars are damaged; but thank God no one was hurt,” Norina said.
As of 4 p.m. on Sunday, the man has not been arrested. KHON2.com reached out to police for additional information but hasn’t heard back.