A gunman walked up behind a 19-year-old man in the parking lot of Kapiolani Community College on Monday morning, pointed a handgun at him, and drove off in his car, according to Honolulu police. The carjacking happened at around 10:50 a.m. and left the victim shaken but unhurt.
According to a statement from Honolulu Police
, the suspect approached the victim from behind, armed with a handgun, and demanded his personal belongings before taking his vehicle and fleeing the scene. No injuries were reported in the incident. The stolen car is described as a blue 2005 Toyota Celica, and police described the suspect only as an unknown man wearing a hoodie and a white face mask.
Police are asking anyone with information about the carjacking to call 911 or CrimeStoppers at 808-955-8300. As of the department's post, no suspect description beyond the hoodie and mask had been released, and no further details on how the attacker left the area were provided.
A String of Recent Carjackings Across Oʻahu
The Kapiolani Community College incident follows other carjackings reported around the island in recent days. Just days earlier, a knife-point carjacking in Waikiki left a 21-year-old man without his black Dodge Charger before police arrested a 31-year-old suspect, as reported by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. That carjacking happened about 10:50 p.m. on a Monday at a hotel loading zone in the Kalia Road area, the paper reported.
KHON2 separately reported that two other carjackings occurred on Oʻahu within the same week it covered, including incidents at Honolulu Airport and in Waianae. In the Waianae case, the station reported, a 14-year-old boy threatened a woman with a machete and drove off with her car before being arrested after crashing it in the Punahou area. A related account from KITV described the Waianae victim as a 76-year-old woman who was allegedly threatened into handing over her car, which police later found crashed into two parked vehicles near Kapiolani Medical Center.
Why So Few Cases Get Solved
Car theft in Honolulu County remains difficult for police to close. A Honolulu Civil Beat data analysis found there were 3,596 motor vehicle thefts in the county in 2024, with police solving just 83 of those cases — a clearance rate the outlet put at less than 3%. By comparison, the same report found Maui cleared almost 15% of its car theft cases that year, a rate Civil Beat described as substantially higher than Oʻahu's.
A security expert quoted by the same KHON2 report said Oʻahu's broader threat environment is changing, urging residents to stay more aware of their personal safety. Honolulu police have advised drivers to keep their vehicles locked, never leave them running unattended, be mindful of where they park, favor well-lit areas when possible, and keep valuables out of sight.
A September 2026 crime-data release from the Governor of Hawaiʻi's newsroom stated that motor vehicle theft was down 21.9% compared with 2024 tallies.
