One worked for an insurance company; another for a bank. A third was a talented video producer.
The three women were described by loved ones as being kind, generous and talented before they were killed by a neighbor who opened fire after driving a front-end loader into a carport late Saturday on Waianae Valley Road.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s office on Wednesday identified the victims of the rampage as Courtney Raymond-Arakaki, 34, Jessyca Amasiu, 29, and Cherell Keamo, 36.
Raymond-Arakaki’s boyfriend and her aunt want people to remember her for how much she cared for others, especially her family.
“She’s an angel,” said her boyfriend of six years, Wyman Keamo. “She had a lot of love and aloha to share with everyone.”
The medical examiner’s statement also confirmed that the 59-year-old shooter, Hiram Silva, was killed by a gunshot wound in the torso.
The violence, which police said escalated after beginning as a dispute between neighbors, was the deadliest of a spate of recent shootings and has shaken the close-knit Westside community.
The medical examiner’s report underscored the horror of the tragedy as people who had gathered for a party tried to flee after Silva rammed the tractor into several vehicles. Police said he was armed with a pistol and a long gun.
Cherell Keamo was killed by a gunshot to the head while Raymond-Arakaki and Amasiu both died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to the medical examiner.
Silva, 59, was shot to death by one of the home’s residents, Rishard Carnate, police said.
Carnate was arrested on suspicion of murder in the second degree and later released pending investigation. He has not been charged. His attorney, Michael Green, said he acted in self defense.
“Everyone’s just reeling from this catastrophic tragedy that we have to pick up the remains from and figure out a way forward,” said state Rep. Cedric Gates, who represents the area. “All of our community members are mourning the loss of some great people.”
Gates said he went to Waianae High School with Amasiu and both graduated in 2011. Amasiu recently worked for First Hawaiian Bank.
Cherell Keamo also graduated from Waianae High School, in 2006, and was a part of Searider Productions, a multimedia program based at the school, according to John Allen, a video adviser with the program.
“She was amazingly open and inclusive,” he said. “She was such a ‘bring everybody together’ kind of person. Super, super supportive of everybody.”
Keamo also showed early talent as a video producer and traveled with the program to multiple conferences on the mainland.
One award-winning piece she produced was a public service announcement about her younger brother, Dennis, who died of leukemia in 2002 at the age of 12. The PSA was about the importance of bone marrow donation, which could have saved her brother. She traveled to Minneapolis in 2005 to accept an award for the piece.
She continued to use her video production skills later in life, posting videos about travels to Disney World and Las Vegas on her YouTube channel.
But Allen especially remembered her for how kind and helpful she was with her classmates. He considered himself a tough teacher at the time but said Keamo inspired him to be more empathetic with his students.
“I learned a lot from her and the way she approached how to help people,” he said. “Even as a high schooler, she was a great example.”
Raymond-Arakaki, too, was known for her kindness and how much she cared for others.
“She was a beautiful person, everybody loved her,” her grandmother, Rose Raymond, said through tears. “She was so kind and considerate. She always took care of everybody. I loved her so much.”
Wyman Keamo said Raymond-Arakaki’s top priority was family and she loved to babysit her nieces and a nephew. The couple also loved to travel together. Their favorite destinations were Disneyland and Las Vegas.
“Words can’t describe how awesome of a person she is,” he said. “She was always helping someone, especially her family.”
Raymond-Arakaki, who worked as a senior associate in the claims department of an insurance company, was the oldest of five siblings and always sacrificed to help her family, said her aunt, Renee Arakaki. When her father died two years ago, she stepped up to the plate to care for her loved ones.
“She really was the rock for her mom, for her sisters and her brother,” she said. “She did so much for them.”
She was close not only with her own family but also with the Keamo family through her boyfriend, Arakaki said.
“His family loved her,” she said. “We were all waiting for them to get married.”
Raymond-Arakaki dreamed of getting married and having kids of her own, but now, her loved ones are mourning a life cut short, her aunt said.
“Instead of planning a wedding, (her boyfriend is) planning a funeral,” she said.
Arakaki said news of the shooting traveled fast between family members, and by early Sunday morning, everyone knew what had happened. So many loved ones are now left devastated, she said.
“For the first few minutes when I heard it, I couldn’t even cry because I was in such shock and disbelief,” she said. “After, when people kept calling us and we watched the news and everything, that’s what made it real. It’s not something that you ever want to be woken up to.”
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This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.