On Aug. 17, a group of West Oahu residents rallied together.
Two separate shootings that had taken place earlier that week in which six people in total were shot, upping the total to three shootings on the west side over the span of two months.
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Two weeks later, four more died and two were critically hurt after an incident in Waianae Valley in which a man rammed a tractor into a neighbor’s home and opened fire.
As one of Waianae’s most prominent citizens, UFC champion Max Holloway was discouraged by what has occurred in his home side of the island when asked about it recently.
“It sucks, man. Put the gun down, boys. Put ‘em down. If you guys got a problem, do it the old school way. Go to the boxing gym, put on some gloves and punch each other and then shake hands and be on with it,” Holloway told KHON2. “I remember when we was growing up, street fights, I wouldn’t say do it, but shooting someone is something different. At the end of the day, stop the violence, go to the gym. Go do something, go lift weights. Go throw weights. Play video games or something. You wanna shoot somebody, go play Apex or Call of Duty or something like that, you know?
“Keep the violence off the streets and you gotta think of the younger generation that’s coming up. I know the younger generation right now is super young doing it but you gotta think of your little brother, your little sister, your nieces, your nephews. Keep the streets good for them and keep striving. Let’s not have that bad taste in our mouths when it comes to the west side. We already got enough bad news coming out of there. Let’s not add more.”