Family complaint may have prompted Waianae shooting that left 4 dead and 2 injured

WAIANAE (HawaiiNewsNow) – The man who shot five people in Waianae on Saturday, killing three of them, has been identified by his family as 58-year-old Hiram Silva.

Silva was killed after a shooting involving a 42-year-old local resident. Police arrested him for murder but released him Monday without charge or explanation.

The victims’ families have shared with friends more details about what happened before the killings.

The incident may have occurred when attendees at a graduation party at Silva’s property burned rubber in a narrow driveway that connects several properties along Waianae Valley Road.

Family members, who had organised their own meeting, went to Silva’s property to confront them.

Police say Silva used a front-end loader with barrels of fuel in a shovel to push the cars onto the covered porch of a neighbor’s home on Waianae Valley Road. After about 45 seconds of demolition, he began shooting 15 to 20 times.

The incident ended in about two minutes. Three residents of the home were killed, two were injured, and Silva was shot dead by a 42-year-old resident.

The medical examiner has not yet publicly identified the three women who died. They were 34, 36 and 29 years old, and friends say they were all residents of the property, which includes at least two houses next to a plot of farmland.

The 31-year-old man and 52-year-old woman remain in hospital in critical condition.

On Monday, Philip Ganaban, a member of the Waianae Borough Board, arrived at the scene and said he was a friend of the family and knew the Silva family.

“Hiram was a really quiet guy and always had a way of doing things, unkosher or whatever you call it?” he said. “He would shoot guns, get drunk, shoot guns, but he never fought with them and he never pointed them at people.”

The family, who identified Silva, said he was a family man and a loving father.

Silva was well-known for his company SER Trucking’s history of illegally dumping garbage. His large property at the end of his driveway includes a large fabric building that he rented out for sometimes raucous parties even when gatherings were banned during the pandemic, drawing complaints from the family he attacked.

“According to the family, there was a lot of intimidation, but he never came out and did anything physical,” Ganaban said. “So he shot his gun, made noises, shined his spotlight around the property, but he never came out and said, ‘I’m going to kill you, I’m going to do this to you.’”

The shooting is the latest and worst case of gun violence in Waianae and has left the entire community on edge, including resident Cathy Kaaaina.

“I’m prepared. You know, I have a bat at one door and a bat at the other door,” she told Hawaii News Now. “If people know there’s a dispute, they need to get counseling. They need to get counseling.”

Sitting on the battered porch of their home Monday morning, the family welcomed a steady stream of visitors and politely declined to comment to reporters.

A 42-year-old man whom police were considering charging with murder for Silva’s killing was released by police without cause.

Ganaban said the family still fears reprisal but has been denied any protection and there was no sign of police in the area on Monday morning.

“That’s the fear that’s out there right now, you know what I mean?” he said. “Dad was shot on their property for what he did, and he’s got a lot of kids and grandkids, right?” so they don’t know.

Police declined to comment Monday and did not return calls to anyone seeking information about one of the worst shooting incidents in Hawaii history.

In addition to the tragedy of having to mourn the deaths of three people and await the recovery of two more, the family has a very practical concern: a front-end loader remains wedged under the roof of their covered porch, and they are unsure who will remove it without causing major damage to the home.

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