Less than two hours after Honolulu police reported that a law enforcement officer had been shot and the department was in a standoff with the suspect, Robert Morris stood in front of what appeared to be a barricaded door near his kitchen and started livestreaming on his Facebook page.
The 50-year-old wiped sweat off his face with a gray rag, settled down on the floor in front of a dirty white door with what appeared to be a flimsy gate piled against it, and announced: “We live everybody … Live from Kapahulu reporting from the inside.”
Over the course of three videos, one of which lasted nearly an hour, Morris talked openly about shooting at police serving a warrant at his house, acknowledged selling drugs, listened to anti-police rap music, interrogated people on the phone about who might have “ratted” him out, and asked for his family to be flown over from Kauaʻi.
Robert Morris, who said he was engaged with police in a barricade standoff in Kapahulu, posted multiple live videos to Facebook on Tuesday. (Screenshot/Facebook)
A spokesperson for the Drug Enforcement Administration said the agency was aware of the video but would not confirm that Robert Morris was the suspect in the standoff or comment further. However, in the Facebook videos, Honolulu police can be heard in the background and key details — including when the warrant was served — match information provided by the department.
Civil Beat also confirmed Morris’ identity with his sister, and linked him to the house in the barricade through public records.
In his last video, Morris acknowledges that he could be facing a steep sentence and admits that he might not make it out of the barricaded house. It’s unclear if he was alone, although Morris said multiple times that there was someone with him.
A black tactical truck was parked on Herbert Street in Kapahulu at around 11 a.m. on Tuesday. A suspect has been barricaded for hours after an officer was shot. (Madeleine Valera/Civil Beat/2025)
The standoff began Tuesday morning, after an officer was shot while executing a federal narcotics search warrant as part of a task force including the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, according to an emailed statement from DEA spokesperson Rosa Valle-Lopez. DEA agents and task force officers “encountered an individual, who began firing a weapon. During this encounter, a task force officer from a partner agency sustained a gunshot injury.”
The officer was being treated at a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The statement did not say which partner agency the officer was from.
One neighbor said her children heard shots around 8:30 a.m. Another person on social media said he heard about eight shots around 9 a.m.
In the videos, Morris says cops arrived at his house around 9 a.m. while he was eating breakfast.
“They came this morning, they pounding on my door. They broke my window and I shoot back at them,” he told someone on the phone in one of the videos.
Early in one video, he says he should stop streaming because officers could identify where he is in the house. But in subsequent videos, he is surprisingly candid about his situation.
“I know selling drugs is illegal, OK … doing drugs is illegal. But that’s my fucking … my thing,” he said.
Records show Morris was convicted in 2008 for selling meth and various weapons charges. He was sentenced to 81 months in prison, and upon his release, he was admitted to a residential treatment program at the Sand Island Treatment Center.
Just before noon, someone inside the home shot a firework toward a law enforcement tactical truck parked in the street. Soon after, about a dozen officers in bulletproof vests and black helmets approached the property.
Police closed off multiple blocks surrounding the standoff and set up a temporary gathering place for residents at nearby Pākī Hale.
Roads in Kapahulu were closed to residents amid a standoff between law enforcement and an armed officer that started when an officer was shot while executing a warrant. (April Estrellon/Civil Beat/2025)
At several points in his livestream, Morris asked negotiators for his mother to be flown from Kauaʻi so he could give her a hug before he goes away.
“My father, my mother not gonna be around by the time I get out. They’ll be long gone,” he said. “The time I’m looking at right now, they’re going to be gone.”
Near the end of the last video, Morris talked to a friend on the phone about finding whoever ratted him out “if I get out of this one alive.”
“Come on, man, don’t think like that, man,” the person on the phone told him a little later. “Right now, you can still get out.”
“Not really,” Morris said, pointing out once again that he would be around 70 by the time he gets out. “My body will be old … decrepit. I ain’t going to have nothing to do at 70, bro. Fuck that.”
Throughout the day, neighbors stopped by to check on the scene. Some seemed disappointed they couldn’t get to their homes.
Officers passed out information to residents whose homes were blocked about a nearby gathering station staffed by the Red Cross. One was Rodney Hamao, who said he was dropped off at around 11 a.m. after an overnight flight from Tokyo and had his luggage in tow.
“I was hoping to take a nap,” he said.
He said he planned to check in with the Red Cross while he waited to access his home again.
Barbie Dudley lives across from where the barricade was happening on Herbert Street. She said she was grabbing coffee in Waikīkī when she got a call from her kids, who were frantic.
“They were like, ‘Mom, we just heard a bunch of shots, sounds like a machine gun going off,’” Dudley said.
Dudley rushed back home, but police officers stopped her at the corner of Campbell and Herbert streets and said she would not be able to go home to get her kids, who are 17, 15 and 13. She said the officer went back up the street and around back of her house to get her kids. The officer brought them to the corner.
“They didn’t know what was going on,” she said. “When the cops knocked on the door they were ducking behind chairs and stuff.”
As of 4:45 p.m., multiple blocks in Kapahulu remained closed to residents. Morris’ last video had ended several hours earlier.
This is a developing story. Refresh for updates.
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