MEDIA RELEASE

Hawaiʻi Island police have initiated a coroner’s inquest case in connection with a possible electrocution.

At 10:20 a.m. Wednesday (December 2), Kona Patrol officers responded to a report of an unresponsive man who may have fallen out of a tree at a home on the 78-7000 block of Kuakini Highway.

When they arrived, the man was lying on the road with burn marks next to a long tree-trimming pole, which also had burn marks. Police determined that he had been trimming branches near electrical power lines.

He was taken to Kona Community Hospital, where he was officially pronounced dead at 1:38 p.m. He has been identified as 26-year-old Christopher Volpa of Kailua-Kona.

An autopsy has been ordered to determine the exact cause of death.