Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Three men from Leone were arrested by police during a public peace disturbance matter that allegedly involved a firearm. All three men appeared in District Court where two of them were officially charged while the third man was released when the government decided not to file any charges against him.

For the two men who were charged and arrested, one man is accused of firing a gun at several people swimming in the ocean on Christmas evening, while the second man is accused of walking towards a police officer with a machete.

Patelesio Mckenzie and Loma Eneliko made their initial appearances in District Court this past Monday.

Mckenzie is charged with one count of disturbing the public peace, one count of unlawful use of a weapon; one count of possession of unlicensed weapon; and one count of unlawful discharge of arms, all misdemeanors.

Eneliko is charged with one count of 3rd degree assault and one count of disturbing the public peace, both misdemeanors.

Both Mckenzie and Eneliko were released on their own recognizance after their initial appearances pending their next court appearances subject to several conditions from the court, including not to make any direct or indirect contact with the victims in this case nor their family members.

Pretrial Conference is scheduled for next month for both defendants.

THE CASE

On Christmas day, Dec. 25, 2020 around 5:51p.m, a woman contacted the Leone Police Substation (LPS) for assistance claiming that she heard gunshots coming from Fagalele, Leone. Several police officers responded to the call and observed an old man making a fuss towards Patelesio Mckenzie, one of the defendants in this matter, and his sister.

According to the government, the old man was asking Mckenzie and his sister if they shot at his kids. At the same time, the defendant’s sister was trying to calm down the old man.

Officers then intervened and took the matter under control.

They spoke to the defendant’s sister regarding what had happened and asked who had discharged the weapon. She claimed that she didn’t know.

In the process of speaking to the defendant’s sister, the defendant was held back by two police officers from trying to charge forward and attack the old man who had questioned him about allegedly shooting at kids. The old man was immediately advised to get back into his vehicle and leave. He obeyed and left the scene right after.

Officers were able to calm the defendant down and he was later escorted to his home by a police lieutenant where he was interviewed about the alleged incident.

While officers were in the house speaking to the defendant, another male individual, later identified as Loma Eneliko (co-defendant in this matter) was walking around the area yelling profanities.

Eneliko was cussing and making unreasonable noise while walking towards his house. While Eneliko was in the house, officers approached some people that were at the scene at the time and asked them who discharged the weapon, and they immediately replied that it was Patelesio [Mckenzie] that discharged it.

About a minute later, Eneliko came back, but this time, he came with a machete in hand. Officers tried to approach Eneliko but he quickly made his way towards the officer and allegedly pulled his hand back as if he was about to strike the officer with the machete.

The police officer threw his hands up in the air and backed away from Eneliko, while informing him that he was not armed and that the officers were not there to fight with him.

Eneliko’s wife immediately approached him and stopped him. Eneliko acknowledged his wife and dropped the machete and came to talk to police officers in a calm manner. Eneliko was asked by officers to come to the police station so that they could proceed with the matter, to which he agreed.

Both Eneliko and Mckenzie were apprehended and transported to the LPS in different police units. Officers smelled a strong odor of alcoholic beverages on both men.

It was while both defendants were being secured in the police units that a third man, later identified as Aukusitino Mckenzie approached the scene aggressively calling out to defendant Patelesio Mckenzie’s sister to come face him. Aukusitino was immediately apprehended by officers at the scene to prevent further breach of the peace.

The third man spent the weekend in custody after which he appeared in Court and was later released to go home, after the government decided not to file any charges against him.

Police interviewed six people who claimed to be the victims in this case.

One victim told police that around 7p.m they were hanging around at Fagalele with two cousins and their friends (all victims), swimming and having a good time when Patelesio Mckenzie approached them and told them to get off their land. One of the victims told Mckenzie that he may own the land, but not the ocean.

Mckenzie then allegedly threatened all six victims by saying, “You guys wait.” Five minutes later his sister came up and started chasing all six victim off of the land.

One got up to take her personal items back to the house, which is just about 100 meters away before she returned to where they had been swimming to make sure that no one got hurt, when all of a sudden, gunshots rang out.

One of the victims told police that she heard about ten gunshots and that was when she called the cops for help. All six victims made it out safely.

A victim, interviewed by police, stated that usually when the defendant’s family hosts parties, they would hear gunshots coming from their party and they would not pay attention to it as they usually thought that it was just fire crackers, but that night (of the incident — last Friday night), it was finally revealed that they were actually gunshots.

Another victim told police that once they heard the first few gunshots being fired, they started to back off, however, more gunshots were fired after that, so they just waited for the cops to arrive.

And yet another of the victims told investigators that shots were coming non-stop and the defendant’s sister said that someone was going to die tonight. They then started walking away and the shots were still being fired. They could feel stuff (bullets) coming from the trees so they walked away and called the cops.

Another victim told investigators that after they heard the defendant’s sister telling them that “one of you guys is going to die tonight,” two of his cousins started running away and he could see a blue light looking for them and he heard more gunshots. As soon as they got to the stairs, the victim stated that he could hear like two more bullets flying past him and his cousins. Once they got to their car, his two cousins called the cops and the lady was still screaming and yelling cuss words and the man was still shooting his gun at one of them and one of them threw a rock at one of the houses.

The last two victims interviewed by investigators shared the same story. They stated that as the defendant was shooting at them from the bushes, and the bullets ricocheted between him and his cousins while they were trying to make their way out of there.

During the time the defendant was shooting at them, the defendant’s sister was shouting and cursing saying, “This is what all of you guys want, one of you guys are going to die tonight.”

A brown and black rusted semi-rifle was confiscated by police at the scene when it was given to them by Patelesio Mckenzie. A police lieutenant was able to witness Mckenzie take out the rifle from where he stored it (inside one of the locked boxes inside his room. Mckenzie handed over the rifle and a magazine containing 4 .30 caliber bullets.

Upon the apprehension of Mckenzie, a body search was conducted and 6 more bullets (.38 caliber) were found in the right pocket of his cargo pants.