After fending off her landlord’s attempt to evict her, Enshaquawa Moore on Friday morning was hoping to check on her apartment at 1136 Union Mall. Instead, she says she was denied access to the building and thrown to the ground by a social media influencer who has been acting as an unlicensed security guard for the landlord. 

Honolulu Police Officers arrested Elijah Kāla McShane on harassment charges following an incident at 11:36 a.m. at the troubled building, police records show. McShane was later released.

“I was just going to check on my stuff, and Elijah attacked me,” said Moore, who on Tuesday won a court victory when owner Union Mall Development Group agreed to dismiss an eviction action it had filed against her.

“He could have just pulled me away at the door if that’s what he wanted,” Moore said of McShane. “But he threw me to the ground and put his knee on my neck.”

“She attacked me and my dad.”

Union Mall Development Group’s Elijah McShane

McShane said the arrest had nothing to do with Moore and instead involved another former tenant who was recording the incident with her cellphone.

“Got arrested for hitting a phone out of the fat lady’s hand because she was harassing me with the phone,” he told Civil Beat in a text message. Moore “attacked us and tried to enter unlawfully. I restrained her and she assaulted me and my dad. Those people are liars.”

Founded by Honolulu developer Chad Waters, Union Mall Development Group is now managed by Scott Bingo and JAZ Capital LLC, a Florida entity, whose principals are Dr. Aiza Alidina, a rheumatologist at Queen’s Medical Center, and Dr. Jasim Alidina, a Honolulu radiologist who is also a licensed real estate salesperson.

Waters has said he is no longer involved in day-to-day building operations at the building, which was illegally converted to residences. Bingo did not respond to a request for comment. Union Mall Development’s attorney Branden Nakahara did not respond to requests for comment. Aiza Alidina has not responded to a request for comment about Union Mall Development delivered to her office earlier this week.

Escalating Violence

The incident demonstrates the escalating violence at the squalid building, where Union Mall Development has turned former office suites into housing that lacks proper kitchens and bathrooms. In early October, Union Mall Development also shut off the building’s electricity and elevators. Earlier this month, McShane’s team began blocking tenant access to the property, even as state judges have dismissed petitions to have the tenants removed.

A social media figure who also goes by the name Son of Oʻahu, McShane also offers online courses on Hawaiian history, culture and values to Hawaiʻi residents of non-Hawaiian descent. 

Moore, who works as an Amazon delivery worker, has been an outspoken critic of building conditions for months. Union Mall Development sought to evict Moore in August, and she was initially ordered to keep paying $837 per month into a rent trust fund while she and the landlord sought to settle their issues through mediation.

The tide began to turn in Moore’s favor in late October when she filed a counterclaim against Union Mall Development, including numerous documents supporting her allegations of wrongdoing by the landlord. District Court Judge Shellie Park-Hoapili put a stay on the order that Moore had to keep paying rent into the trust fund pending a trial in January.

At the time, Moore still had her unit at 1136 Union Mall under lease but was living with a friend in Makiki.

On Tuesday, Moore and Union Mall Development returned to court and announced a settlement. Notably, Moore would get back the rent money she had paid into the rent trust fund and could still later sue Waters and Union Mall Development.

When Moore came back to check on her unit on Friday, she learned the limitations of what she had perceived as a win in court.

A video shot from above provided to Civil Beat on Saturday provides a bird’s-eye view of the incident as it unfolded. It begins with McShane pinning Moore to the ground, her legs kicking sideways.

“Get him the fuck off of me!” Moore calls out to the police officers, who then intervene.

As Moore, dressed in her turquoise Amazon uniform, is walking away, another man who has been acting as building security strikes Moore in the head with a large black and red tripod, knocking her to the ground. One officer gets between the man and Moore, while another helps Moore stand up.

Back on her feet, Moore, with an officer standing on either side of her, kicks McShane as he walks away. The video shows McShane walking past former tenant Christina Jordan, who is holding her phone, videotaping the incident. After walking past Jordan, McShane turns back toward Jordan and slaps at the phone twice.

Moore filed a report at the scene with an officer identified on a receipt handed to her as P. Garcia, who classified the incident as “assault.” Moore said she doesn’t understand why the HPD log classified McShane’s arrest as harassment.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” she said.

‘He Was Gonna Make This Tenant Pay’

Ken Lawson, a former criminal defense lawyer who is co-director of the Hawaiʻi Innocence Project at the University of Hawaiʻi’s William S. Richardson School of Law, said the incident proved what Moore had been trying to tell the court about Union Mall Development group and Waters.

“He was gonna make this tenant pay,” Lawson said. “It’s like, ‘OK, you got your way in court, but this ain’t the court. This is the streets, and here’s how we gonna punish you in the streets.’”

Lawson said there needs to be an investigation into who has been calling the shots at the building: Waters, Bingo or the Alidinas.

“What’s really scary about this is it’s giving a roadmap to other rogue landlords and other rogue developers.”

Hawaiʻi Rep. Kim Coco Iwamoto

State Rep. Kim Coco Iwamoto, who represents downtown Honolulu, said the incident exposes gaps in landlord-tenant law and the mechanisms for enforcing it.

“What’s really scary about this is it’s giving a roadmap to other rogue landlords and other rogue developers,” Iwamoto said, showing them that there are no consequences for disregarding the law.”

City officials say they have been stymied in part because no one at Union Mall Development is willing to take responsibility for the building. Still, Iwamoto — a lawyer-turned-lawmaker — said there are mechanisms to hold Union Mall Development and its members to account.

For example, Union Mall Development has been found in contempt of court by District Court Judge Thomas Haia for not following an injunction Haia issued on behalf of a commercial tenant. The judge could issue a warrant and call the current managers before the court to account for what’s going on.

“I think it’s fair for them to exercise that given the level of contempt,” she said.

Additionally, she said, Jasim Alidina’s role as a licensed real estate professional and manager of Union Mall Development Group exposes him to potential disciplinary action by the Hawaiʻi Regulated Industries Complaints Office, which investigates misconduct by licensed professionals.

 “This whole situation is exposing giant loopholes of injustice that really hurts tenants,” Iwamoto said. “This is exposing, at least for me as a legislator, that we need a stronger landlord-tenant code.”