Detectives with the Hawai‘i County Police Department’s Area II Criminal Investigation Section launched a coroner’s inquest investigation after officers responding to a trespassing incident at a Kailua-Kona storage rental facility, determined that a man appeared to have taken his own life.
 
Kona patrol officers responded to the storage property following a request to remove a male from the facility. In the course of investigation, police learned that the man was living within a rented storage unit and had been evicted from the property.
 
Shortly after contacting the man, whose identity is being withheld pending positive identification and notification of next of kin, officers observed him go into the unit and later heard a loud noise consistent with a gunshot.

At that point, police secured the area and waited for additional units to arrive. After getting no further response, officers checked the unit and observed the man with a traumatic head injury, consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and a rifle next to his body.

Detectives with the Area II Criminal Investigation Section are continuing the investigation.