Maui police chief recalls pain of 1 October during Lahaina fire presser

The Lahaina fire was not the first time Maui Police Chief John Pelletier has dealt with a massive loss of life. He was part of the department that, six years earlier, responded to the deadliest mass shooting in history.

At a news conference over the weekend, Pelletier remembered calling the families of the people lost at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas in 2017. With a trembling voice, he spoke of the dozens of families Maui first responders would now be calling.

“We’ve got to go make 89 notifications,” Pelletier said. “Coming from a place that had to make 58, I understand the pain this is going to take. … And we’re not done with 89.”

Pelletier left his job as a captain for the Metropolitan Police Department in 2021 after 22 years to be Maui’s police chief. During a hearing with the Maui Police Commission at the time, Pelletier said his greatest professional achievement was overseeing the area command that covers the Strip during the mass shooting on Oct. 1, 2017, that initially killed 58 people. By October 2020, the official death toll had increased to 60.

Pelletier told the commission that during his time with Metro, he ran the K-9 and SWAT sections, served as a detective sergeant in the gang unit, was in internal affairs and had been an instructor in the police academy, among other positions.

At the recent news conference, he begged people not to step through the remains that authorities were still identifying.

“We pick up the remains, and they fall apart,” Pelletier said. “When you have 200 people running through the scene yesterday, and some of you, that’s what you’re stepping on. I don’t know how much more you want me to describe it.”

A team of 45 Clark County firefighters, representing every local department, flew west last week to help examine structures, find human remains and look for hazardous materials.

Since Pelletier spoke, the death toll from the fire that ripped through Lahaina last week has risen to 99 people. Thousands of structures were destroyed, with damages estimated at over $5 billion.

Pelletier urged residents with missing family to submit their DNA, and he said they expected to start naming some of those who lost their lives Tuesday.

He did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter. The Associated Press contributed to this report.