Assignment: Specialized Services Division
Date of Birth: December 1, 1960
Appointment Date: May 18, 1989
End of Watch: July 21, 1995

On July 21, 1995 a collaborative search involving the Honolulu Fire Department and Honolulu Police Department was underway in the Sacred Falls Valley area searching for a missing hiker.

Officers Tate Kahakai and Bryant Bayne were assigned to the Specialized Services Division Task Group. They were part of the search team to be suspended in a basket by a Honolulu Fire Department helicopter into the valley. While in transport near the search site the aircraft lost control and crashed into a steep slope.

Both Officers Kahakai and Bayne and HFD helicopter pilot Peter Crown were killed in the crash.

THE CITY’S BEST

I Watched The News The Other Night,
“A Chopper Went Down,” They Said.
“Two Policemen Missing At Sacred Falls,”
“Their Pilot, Crown, Found Dead.”

The Search For A Missing Hiker,
The Reporter Went On To Say.
Was The Reason For This Fatal Crash,
That Happened Here Today.

The Clouds Moved In. The Sun Went Down.
And Without It, Came The Night.
The Search, For Now, Suspended.
To Resume Again, First Light.

I Thought By Then, They’d Walk On Out.
My Mind Was Full Of Hope.
I Watched Them Sitting In A Basket,
Hanging From A Rope.

I Prayed For Them Throughout The Night,
And At The Break O Dawn.
I Hoped The Best For My Two Friends,
As The Search Had Carried On.

My Focus Fixed Upon The Screen,
My Eyes Now Opened Wide.
The Television Brought The News,
My Mind Was Trying To Hide.

Goosebumps Spread, Throughout My Skin.
As I Watched In Disbelief.
The Hope, That Once FIlled My Head,
Now Filled My Heart With Grief.

A Black Band Lay Across My Badge Today,
As It Does With All The Rest.
For We, “THE CITY’S FINEST,”
Come To Morn Our “CITY’S BEST.”

-By: Former HPD Officer Frank M. Abreu

WHY?

For Those Who Still Don’t Understand,
And Ask The Question WHY?
I Think Heaven Has A Police Department,
Up There In The Sky.

WIth JESUS As The Chief Of Police,
He Watches Us From Birth.
And When The Need Arises,
He Recruits Our Best From Earth.

His Officers Are Angels,
Who Patrol The Skies Above.
His Line-Up List Is Full Of Names,
Of People We Once Loved.

Now To That List He Adds Two More,
Though We Give Them With Much Pain.
The Roster Up In Heaven,
Now Reads KAHAKAI And BAYNE.

His Timing May Seem Bad To Us,
But His Reason Just Could Be.
That JESUS Had a Problem,
And He Needed SSD……

-By: Former HPD Officer Frank M. Abreu