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Friday 6 december 2019

Pearl Harbor

Continued from Front wick, commander of Navy
Region Hawaii, said he
The shooter was identified didn’t know the motive for
Thursday as 22-year-old G. the shooting Wednesday
Romero, according to a at the naval shipyard with-
military official who spoke in the base. The wounded
on condition of anonymity victim was hospitalized in
to provide details that had stable condition.
not been made public. It wasn’t known if the sailor
Romero’s job was to stand and the three men working
watch on the fast attack for the U.S. Department of
submarine USS Columbia, Defense knew each other,
which is at Joint Base Pearl Chadwick said.
Harbor-Hickam for mainte- “We have no indication
nance. He used his service yet whether they were tar-
rifle to shoot the victims, geted or if it was a random
then killed himself with his shooting,” Chadwick said.
service pistol, the official Tara Kapoi told The Associ-
said. ated Press that her 30-year-
Rear Adm. Robert Chad- old husband, Vincent Ka-

The USS Arizona Memorial can be seen from the Pearl Harbor National Memorial Wednesday, Dec.
4, 2019, in Honolulu.
Associated Press
poi Jr., was one of those In 2006, a man fatally shot of USS Arizona, which sank
killed. She said he worked his taxi driver and a couple in the Dec. 7, 1941, Japa-
at the shipyard and grew taking photos of the city nese attack. More than
up in Waianae, a town on lights from a lookout point 2,300 Americans were killed
the west side of Oahu. in the hills above Honolulu. in the bombing.
“We don’t know what hap- Hawaii Gov. David Ige said The shipyard has played
pened,” she said Thursday, the White House has of- a key role in naval history,
asking for privacy. fered assistance from fed- most notably during World
Names of the other victims eral agencies and that the War II. Shipyard workers
have not been released. state is also ready to help if were given just days to re-
It wasn’t immediately needed. pair the USS Yorktown, an
known how many shots “I join in solidarity with the aircraft carrier severely
were fired. Chadwick said people of Hawaii as we ex- damaged during the Battle
that was part of the inves- press our heartbreak over of the Coral Seat in 1942,
tigation. this tragedy and concern because the Navy needed
Mass shootings and gun for those affected by the to quickly send the ship to
violence are rare in Ha- shooting,” Ige said in a Midway to meet Japanese
waii. It had the lowest gun statement. forces.
death rate among the The Pearl Harbor Naval Some 1,400 shipyard work-
states in 2017, according Shipyard repairs, maintains ers labored around the
to the Giffords Law Center and modernizes the ships clock for almost 72 hours to
to Prevent Gun Violence. and submarines of the U.S. patch together the carrier.
The islands have strict fire- Pacific Fleet, which is head- The planes the Yorktown
arms laws, including a ban quartered at Pearl Harbor. delivered to Midway sank
on assault weapons and The base is the home port one of the four aircraft car-
large-capacity ammuni- for 10 destroyers and 15 riers Japan sent to the bat-
tion magazines. submarines. It also hosts Air tle and helped destroy two
In 1999, a Xerox service Force units. others. The Battle of Mid-
technician shot and killed The shipyard is across the way turned the tide of the
seven coworkers in Hawaii. harbor from the wreckage war in U.S. favor.q