Kauai police honor three traffic officers for fatal crash investigation

The Kauai Police Department used its May Police Commission meeting to honor Sgt. Shawn Hanna, Officer Joseph Himongala and Officer Tyler Henshaw as Employees of the Month, tying the recognition to their investigative work in a fatal hit-and-run in Līhue. The department’s message was clear: traffic safety on Kauai is not just about citations. It is also about the painstaking work of reconstructing deadly crashes, collecting evidence and determining exactly what happened when a collision turns fatal.

The case at the center of the recognition began on Feb. 12, 2025, when a pedestrian traveling on Nāwiliwili Road near Nokekula Street was struck and killed by a vehicle. KPD said the driver fled the scene but was identified and arrested the next day, on Feb. 13, 2025. The suspect is now awaiting trial on charges of Negligent Homicide in the Second Degree and Collisions Involving Death or Serious Bodily Injury. Chief Rudy Tai said the officers’ work reflected the department’s professional standards and that they remained compassionate toward the victim’s family during a difficult time.

For KPD, the honor also spotlighted the specialized role of the Traffic Safety Section in major crash investigations. Hanna, Himongala and Henshaw were not being recognized for routine patrol work. They were singled out for the careful, methodical investigation that follows a fatal roadway incident, the kind of work that can shape charging decisions, inform court proceedings and help a grieving family understand what the department believes happened on the road that night.

The recognition came as traffic deaths continued to weigh on the island. On May 2, 2026, 24-year-old Kauai man Caden Garon died in a single-vehicle crash on Kaumualii Highway near Kalepa Street in Līhue. Police said the intersection was closed for about two and a half hours and that speed appeared to be a contributing factor. In that case, Officer Tyler Henshaw was listed as the witness contact, underscoring how often the same Traffic Safety Section is pulled into the county’s most serious roadway cases.

The department’s public praise for Hanna, Himongala and Henshaw also fit a longer pattern. In 2023, Hanna, Henshaw, Alexander Lacson and Desmond Thain made 79 OVUII arrests on Kauai, and in June 2024 Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Hawaii Department of Transportation honored the four officers for reducing impaired-driving injuries and fatalities. KPD has repeatedly framed that work as a public-safety mission, not just enforcement, and the latest recognition shows that the same crash investigators who help build fatal cases are still central to keeping Kauai roads under scrutiny.