For the third time this month, Honolulu police officers have shot and wounded a suspect allegedly trying to flee in a vehicle.

The latest shooting happened about 10:30 a.m. yesterday in Kalihi, police said, when a 21-year-old man allegedly driving a stolen car refused to stop for three plainclothes police officers, instead revving his engine and attempting to drive away.

Police identified the suspect as Reinier Sales, of Kalihi.

HPD Capt. Letha DeCaires said the officers were endangered, and one of the officers fired at the suspect.

The suspect was shot in the "right rib area," police said, and was arrested on multiple felony counts.

Police would not say how many shots were fired at the suspect, but witnesses said they heard at least three.

The shooting left many on Makuahine Place, a cul-de-sac near Kamehameha Shopping Center, shaken and had some questioning the way officers handled the incident. When the shooting happened, several young kids were playing in the bed of a pickup truck parked in a driveway about 50 feet away, they said. The pickup was obscured behind trees.

But it was in the direction the officers were facing, and it was close enough that the children said they saw what happened. One of the kids, 10-year-old Jowie Deseo, said he ran inside his house after he heard the gunshots. Deseo said he saw the officers yelling at the suspect and also saw the suspect trying to get away. "I was a little scared," he said.

Chris Deseo, Jowie's uncle, wasn't home when the shooting happened, but said he is concerned that shots were fired so close to a group of kids and potentially other bystanders.

"That's my nephew. I'm kind of worried," Deseo said.

He added that when shots are fired, "you never know who's going to get hit."

Police would not confirm yesterday whether the children were in the area when the shooting happened.

An internal police investigation on whether the officers followed police procedure is under way, as is standard procedure.

Before the incident happened, the three plainclothes officers, all driving separate unmarked cars, were in the area investigating a report of a stolen gray pickup truck.

The officers, who were wearing police badges, spotted a truck and followed it to Makuahine Place, where the driver parked in front of a white Dodge Neon.

As officers checked both vehicles to see if they were stolen, the driver of the Neon allegedly tried to flee.

The Neon couldn't get out of Makuahine because the officers had blocked the narrow roadway with their cars.

But he attempted to get through, DeCaires said, and in the process hit one of the unmarked police cars and a light pole.

"The engine (of the Neon) revved, the wheels screeched and it hit one of the officers' vehicles," DeCaires said.

She added, "In so doing, he was going directly at one of our officers."

At that point, one of the officers fired at the driver.

Witnesses said the bullets went through the Neon's windshield, cracking it.

The driver of the Neon then got out of the vehicle, and was wrestled to the ground by all three police officers.

"It took all three of them to subdue the suspect," DeCaires said.

Police said the driver of the stolen Neon had four prior misdemeanor convictions, including for criminal property damage and driving without a license.

Emergency Medical Services took the driver to a hospital in serious condition.

A plainclothes police officer also suffered a minor wrist injury in the incident.

DeCaires would not say whether the officer who was injured was also the one who fired at the driver.

A female passenger in the Neon fled, but was later found and was not arrested.

A separate investigation into the original auto theft case involving the gray pick-up truck is ongoing.