The woman charged with shooting a man on the UW campus told police she “thought my whole world was going to end” when she fired her gun.
29-year-old Elizabeth Hokoana told investigators in a recorded interview that she saw the shooting victim, Joshua Dukes, holding a large knife with his right hand while grabbing her husband, Marc Hokoana with his left hand.
KING 5 obtained a copy of the interview through a public records request.
“It was a big knife. It wasn't a pocket knife,” she said. “As far as how long it was, I don't know. But it was meant to kill somebody. It was not a tool.”
Elizabeth admitted to police, however, that Dukes made no verbal threat to her or her husband.
She described witnessing the violence in Red Square the night of the shooting. Cell phone footage shows her husband hugging a young man who had blue paint on his face, and his nose was bleeding from an apparent scuffle.
She said she and her husband were watching a group of men attacking another man who was on the ground. Marc began to pepper spray the group in response, Elizabeth told investigators. That is when she said Dukes advanced on the couple and tried to pull Marc to the ground.
“When I saw a guy who had a knife in his hand who was about to gut my husband? I thought my whole world was going to end. We've been together for the last 14 years,” she said, crying. “There was someone who was going to take my husband's life away right in front of me. I was scared.”
Among the material released from the King County Prosecutor’s office, was a video of the Hokoanas re-enacting the alteration with Dukes.
Also included was a forensic video analysis completed by Grant Fredericks of Forensic Video Solutions. Fredericks wrote that in an earlier altercation, Elizabeth can be seen in cell phone video with her hand under her jacket.
“Her right hand is placed under her coat at the rear right side of her body. She holds her hand in this position as she approaches and then watches the events with M. Hokoana,” the report said.
In a “Shooting Observations” section of the report, Fredericks analyzed a section of cell phone video that shows the struggle between Dukes and Marc and contradicted what Elizabeth told investigators.
Fredericks wrote, “Nothing is visible in [Duke’s] hand,” for one part of the video. On another part, he wrote, “Dukes’ right hand is empty.”
Elizabeth pleaded not guilty to a first-degree assault charge stemming from the shooting last January outside a speaking event featuring Milo Yiannopoulous. Marc Hokoana pleaded not guilty to a third-degree assault charge for using his pepper spray. The couple is claiming self-defense.
Dukes suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen. He is now out of the hospital.