POLICE BEAT
Man dies following brawl on N. Shore
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
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SUNSET BEACH — Police were searching for a suspect yesterday after a man was shot to death during a brawl on the North Shore Saturday night.
The dead man was identified by family and friends as Dillon Ching, 30.
The victim's brother Billy Jack "B.J." Ching said he was pounded with a baseball bat during the brawl that ended in the fatal shooting.
B.J. Ching, 31, heard the shots that killed his brother.
"My brother (22-year-old T.Y.) grabbed me and picked me up," Ching said. "We were coming up to the house, and I asked, 'Who's that on the ground?' "
Their brother, Dillon was down in an empty lot next to his family home at 59-524 Kamehameha Highway, badly wounded and bleeding from his neck, back and stomach. Relatives and friends carried him into the driveway.
Emergency Medical Services responded at 11:54 p.m. and were taking Ching to The Queen's Medical Center but detoured to Wahiawa General Hospital when he went into cardiac arrest, said EMS spokesman Bryan Cheplic. Ching was pronounced dead in Wahiawa's emergency room at 1:08 a.m. yesterday.
Police, who are investigating the shooting as a homicide, said the call came in at 11:52 Saturday that a large number of people were fighting in the street. During the fight, a man with a gun emerged and fired several shots into the crowd, according to the police report.
B.J. Ching said he was partying in the garage with six others when they became involved in the melee with more than 30 people who were at the beach site called Log Cabins.
"I don't know why (it started). ... It was one guy from our group and one guy from the other group, and then they came out of the bush," B.J. Ching said, huge red welts on his back still visible late yesterday afternoon.
Kristi Avilla, B.J. Ching's stepdaughter, said Dillon Ching had just returned home with his wife, Desiree, and his 2 1/2-year-old son, Isaiah, after visiting Desiree's family in Wahiawa when the free-for-all started.
"He gave his son to his wife at the car so she could bring him to the house and then he got shot from behind two times," Avilla said.
Dolly Ann Motta, Ching's mother, and his grandfather, Dolthin Motta, who flew in from Hilo yesterday, sat in the garage of Ching's home with relatives trying to deal with the death of a "good son and father."
Melissa Dabin, B.J. Ching's girlfriend, said "Dillon never caused anybody any problems in his life. He was a family-oriented person."
When the fighting started, Dabin said, "All I heard was screaming ... then maybe five shots. I don't think they were gunning for Dillon."
Dillon Ching was a graduate of Waialua High School and worked construction.
The shooting death was the second in seven days and O'ahu's fourth violent death since April 12. A week ago tonight, 27-year-old Benjamin Grajeda was gunned down in Kane'ohe.
Jerrico Dewon Lindsey, 26, is charged with murder and William Lee Freeman, 35, with kidnapping and hindering prosecution in that case. Both were arrested on the North Shore after police cornered them in Hale'iwa. Bail for each is $3 million.
A third suspect is still at large.
Earlier this month, police charged Less Schnabel Jr., 21, with manslaughter in the April 22 death of Christopher Reuther at Zablan Beach Park in Nanakuli.
Kirk Lankford, 22, has been charged in the murder of Masumi Watanabe of Japan, who disappeared April 12 in Pupukea. Police have been searching Windward O'ahu for her body.
Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.
