Community: 4-27-21 Puna Murder Victim Identified

Hawai‘i Island police have identified the man shot to death at his residence in the Aloha Estates subdivision of Puna on Monday, April 26, 2021, as 59-year-old Jay Allen Freeman of Volcano.

Shortly before 1:00 p.m. on Monday afternoon, Puna patrol officers responded to a residence on Nau Nani Road in Volcano after receiving a report of a male shooting victim. Upon arrival, police confirmed a deceased male lying on the ground in his yard.

The suspect, later identified as 32-year-old Daris Paul Pacheco, was taken into custody at his nearby residence without incident at approximately 3:15 p.m.

An autopsy was performed Tuesday morning, April 27, and concluded Freeman died from a gunshot wound to the chest. The manner of death was determined to be homicide.

Detectives with the Area I Criminal Investigation Section are continuing this second-degree murder investigation.

Police ask anyone who may have been in the area and witnessed this incident or has information to call the police department’s non-emergency line at (808) 935-3311 or Detective Casey Cabral at (808) 961-2381 or casey.cabral@hawaiicounty.gov.