A Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 717-200, registration N480HA performing flight HA-177 from Kona,HI to Honolulu,HI (USA) with 89 passengers on board, was just reaching the top of descent into Honolulu when the left hand engine (BR715) emitted a loud bang followed by severe vibrations. The crew shut the left hand engine down and continued to Honolulu for a safe landing on runway 04R about 15 minutes later. The engine was replaced. Passengers reported there was a large boom followed by vibrations. Some time later the crew announced that the left hand engine had been shut down. The airline reported the crew detected engine vibratiosn while still enroute at FL220 and shut the engine down.