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Police officer of Samoan ancestry accused in Hawai’i

A Honolulu police officer of Samoan ancestry, Francisco Lutu, is accused of taking guns that were supposed to be destroyed and trying to sell them on the side, according to Honolulu based HawaiiNewsNow—which provides news for three Honolulu television stations (including KGMB-TV aired locally on Moana TV Cable Ch: 29)

Lutu has not been charged with any crime so far but has resigned after the Honolulu Police Department (HPD) began investigating him earlier this spring.

HPD began criminal and administrative investigations in March, after allegations surfaced of "firearms improprieties" by an officer assigned to the firearms unit, the news organization cites a spokesperson for HPD as saying. The spokeswoman declined to identify the officer in this or any other personnel case.

Citing unnamed sources, HawaiiNewsNow identified Lutu, who was working at the firearms desk. It was alleged that when somebody came to turn in a weapon, he would tell his bosses he needed to go on a lunch break and then he would meet the person outside the office and try to give the person some cash so that they would give him the gun instead of turning it over to HPD to be destroyed.

[Information on this story is on www.hawaiinewsnow.com]