For the second time in recent weeks, the North Shore yesterday found itself at the center of a murder investigation.

But while the April search for a young Japanese tourist who had disappeared on her routine morning walk in Pupukea went on quietly for weeks, police descended on Hale'iwa town in force late Monday night hunting for three men suspected in the slaying of a Kane'ohe man hours earlier.

By 8 a.m. yesterday, police had two suspects in custody in the shooting death of Fernando Correa-Lua, 30. The suspects list Honolulu and 'Ewa Beach addresses. Another suspect remained at large.

North Shore residents acknowledged that the area has "a reputation" but said the community is usually safe.

"It's always been a little like the wild west," said Carol Philips, a North Shore Neighborhood Board member. "But you can walk down the street and not worry."

Philips said crime in the community generally fits into two categories: that which is drug-related and that which is committed by people from out of town.

The manhunt had proved unsettling, though.

"It's unnerving that there's a killer loose in our community," she said yesterday morning.

POLICE OUT IN FORCE

The search Monday night and into yesterday morning by dozens of police officers was supplemented by police dogs and a helicopter. Police canvassed an area behind Jameson's By The Sea restaurant on the outskirts of Hale'iwa town, which was blocked off from traffic. Later the search moved to the other side of the Joseph Leong Highway, a bypass road.

Residents said the noise kept people awake, and the roadblocks kept some away from their homes for hours. Philips said her mother had to sleep at 7-Eleven for a couple of hours.

Edison De Paula, who operates a surf school in Hale'iwa, said he didn't get to sleep until 4 a.m. because of helicopter noise. Police had searched his property and the vacant home next door after a neighbor reported the suspects in the vicinity, De Paula said.

The community is accessed via a one-lane gravel road that winds around a pond in the back of a Chevron station. Homes vary from upscale to old plantation, but many of the empty lots are overgrown with weeds.

Someone running through the area might quickly find themselves up against the many dogs in the community or the pond and stream that feed into it.

De Paula said the police search was exciting, and he felt safe with all the officers around. The area is normally safe, he said, and he doesn't see that changing any time soon.

"For me, it was a pretty interesting experience," he said. "Something you see in the movies."

THOROUGH SEARCH

Carl Edinger, a local mariner, said he was walking to a store late Monday night on a darkened road using a flashlight when a police officer blinded him with a flashlight and demanded to know who he was and what he was doing there.

Police thoroughly searched the area with dogs and then searched again, said Edinger, who was staying with a friend.

"It was my first night ashore, and there's a shooting, high-speed chase and manhunt," he said, adding that his friend was well prepared for intruders with motion sensor lights, a perimeter fence and an electric gate to protect his property.

Edinger said this kind of incident is not just a North Shore problem. "It's just the world, the growing population."

In the case of the missing Japanese tourist, Masumi Watanabe, 21, has never been found. She is presumed dead, and Kirk Lankford, 22, of Kalihi, has been charged in her death.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.