State support for gang intervention efforts has dropped since the 1990s and tracking has been minimal since then, too.

Prosecutors have attributed two deadly shootings on Oʻahu’s Westside in 2023 as well as another in May — the result of a botched murder-for-hire plot — to a gang called the “Shark Boys.”

Police, community members and crime victims have speculated in the last year that at least some of the shootings on the Westside were related to gangs, but this is the first instance of multiple killings being directly linked to one group.

“The gang is known in the Mākaha community for robbing people, mobbing people, fighting, and prior shootings,” Deputy Honolulu Prosecutor Kyle Mesa wrote in a court memo on July 24 opposing the release of suspects in the May shooting.

The Shark Boys

See Full Page