‘An unacceptable lapse’: Investigation underway after secured door opened for arrestee to escape from police station

HONOLULU (KHON2) — A man arrested by police escaped from Kapolei Police Station on Sunday.

Residents are concerned about the possibility of it occurring once more.

“It’s clearly an unacceptable lapse,” Honolulu City Councilmember Tyler Dos Santos-Tam said.

David Montoya, 31, was back in custody within hours of his escape from the Kapolei Police Station Sunday morning. Dos Santos-Tam, a member of the public safety committee, said he wants answers.

“The point is not that he was captured afterwards,” Dos Santos-Tam explained. “The point is that he was let out in the first place. And I think we need to look into all the things that led up to that happening.”

According to the Honolulu Police Department, Montoya was arrested Sunday for violating a temporary restraining order and warrants. He was taken to the Kapolei Police Station for processing.

Police sources said he was allowed to use the restroom, after which he passed a secured door and pressed a security button. That’s when sources said the operator, assuming Montoya was an officer, unlocked the door allowing Montoya to escape.

Kapolei neighborhood board secretary Mikiala Lidstone said she does not understand how something like this could happen.

“I mean, it’s everyone’s reaction. ‘What?’ right,” she said. “It’s disappointing. When you feel like or when you hear that improvements are being made. You hear the rhetoric, but you don’t see that happening.”

She said the incident is very concerning.

“We want to feel safe. And I feel like, as a community, we’re trying to take our community back with the increase in crime and we’re having all of these community initiatives and then something like this happens. And it’s like, it feels like a step backwards,” Lidstone said.

In a statement HPD said: “The Professional Standards Office has opened an administrative review into the incident to determine if department policies and procedures were followed.”

The mayor said he trusts “the department will move swiftly to investigate.”

“Our whole goal needs to be reduce crime and to hold criminals accountable,” Dos Santos-Tam added. “And to simply have one walk out of the police station, that’s a pretty big lapse.”

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The Sunday’s escape is not the first time there have been issues at the Kapolei Police Station. In February of 2022, 48-year-old Linda Johnson was killed in front of the station.

Johnson had been released from custody for violating park rules and was sitting outside the station when she was allegedly attacked and killed by Michael Armstrong. The attack happened just minutes after Armstrong was released for assaulting two people, one of whom was a police officer.

Armstrong is due in court for Johnson’s murder July 30th.

Lidstone said the police need to do better and this cannot happen again.

“What can this police station do to really build the community’s trust again? Because really the trust that the community has in our department right now, it’s really frail,” she said.