WAILUKU — A woman was standing in the threshold of a doorway at a Haiku residence last week when a vehicle pulled into the driveway and the driver got out with a rifle.

“As soon as she observed him bring up the rifle, she immediately ducked down for cover and heard multiple gunshots,” police Detective John Surina testified Wednesday. “They were one after another, faster than she could count.”

He said the woman recognized the shooter as Shawn J. Medeiros, who had parked his white BMW sport utility vehicle diagonally so the front faced his ex-girlfriend’s cottage on the property on Apala Place.

While the ex-girlfriend wasn’t home when bullets were fired through the cottage at 1:36 p.m. Aug. 15, five family members were in another house on the property, police said.

Two women, including the one who saw Medeiros, were in the doorway of the house about 20 feet from Medeiros, Surina said.

Because the woman had returned to Oregon, Surina testified about her observations at a preliminary hearing in Wailuku District Court for Medeiros, 55.

She described the weapon he had as an assault rifle, Surina said. After the gunshots stopped, she saw Medeiros’ vehicle reverse and leave, he said. Then the woman went outside and saw multiple shell casings on the ground in the driveway area and multiple bullet holes by the front door of the cottage, Surina said.

“She smelled gunpowder,” he said.

Asked by Deputy Prosecutor Joshua Kent how certain she was that it was Medeiros, Surina said, “From the multiple times she had met him, she was 100 percent sure.”

Police were looking for Medeiros in the Upcountry area when Wailuku patrol Sgt. Nick Krau saw the suspect’s 2008 white BMW sport utility vehicle on Crater Road above Mile Marker 2.5 in Kula at 5:37 p.m. that day. Krau drove past the BMW and stopped at a road above while calling for backup.

The BMW was on the shoulder of the road when Krau pulled up alongside, got out and drew his firearm while ordering the driver to get out of the BMW.

“He sped off towards my direction, but he was able to get around me,” Krau said. “I jumped in my vehicle, activated lights and sirens and took off after him.”

The road was wet and slippery as Medeiros passed multiple vehicles, disregarding the double-solid yellow line while heading down Crater Road before turning right onto Haleakala Highway, Krau said.

He was two to three vehicle lengths behind as Medeiros drove at speeds of 60 to 65 mph, pulling away as Krau slowed down at curves, he said.

At Mile Marker 4, officer Kamaloni Vainikolo pulled in front of Krau to also follow Medeiros. Officer Mousa Kawas pulled in behind Vainikolo to join the pursuit at Mile Marker 2.

“There’s three of us behind this vehicle, all of us with our emergency lights and sirens,” Krau said. “There’s just no attempt to stop at all. It was a pretty intense pursuit.”

Medeiros turned down Kealaloa Avenue in Makawao.

“It was dangerous,” Krau said. “I was extremely nervous because we’re going through that residential neighborhood. The need to capture him was so great that at that split second, I had to weigh the options. It was so important for us to catch him, especially with that firearm involved.”

The officers continued to follow as Medeiros turned right onto Makawao Avenue, then left onto Maha Road and right onto Ukiu Road, passing Makawao Elementary School before turning right onto Baldwin Avenue, then right back onto Makawao Avenue through Makawao town.

“You have pedestrians there, you have businesses there,” Krau testified. “I was so close to stopping that pursuit because of concern for safety of the public.”

When the BMW again turned onto Maha Road, Krau circled back to Ukiu Road, where the BMW was heading straight toward Krau’s police vehicle.

“I stopped and braced,” he said. “He somehow went around the side of me, very narrowly missed me.”

The BMW had collided into another vehicle on its second pass through Maha Road, Krau said.

From Ukiu, the vehicle again turned up Baldwin Avenue and sped through Makawao town, turning right onto Makawao Avenue and continuing on to Haleakala Highway, where it went uphill.

The BMW passed King Kekaulike High School and was on Kula Highway when it turned left onto Omaopio Road and appeared to be heading toward Medeiros’ residence, Krau said. He said the BMW turned right onto Old Kula Highway and Medeiros slammed on his brakes at the steep decline to his driveway, causing officer Vainikolo to hit the BMW from behind.

Medeiros parked at the bottom while the officers stood at the top of the driveway with their firearms drawn, Krau said. He said Medeiros was trying to open the door when Vainikolo ran down the driveway and grabbed Medeiros before he could get into the house.

When police executed a search warrant for the BMW, a small plastic bag containing .05 gram of crystal methamphetamine was found in the front passenger seat area, Surina said.

He said the lower and upper portions of an AR-15 rifle were found in a trash bag in the rear cargo area, along with a magazine containing nine .223-caliber bullets. One round was chambered in the upper receiver portion of the firearm, Surina said. He said there was no serial number on the rifle.

Ammunition also was found in Medeiros’ residence, Surina said.

He said the ammunition was the same type as the 17 .223-caliber shell casings found by the driveway at the Haiku residence. There were 17 bullet holes in the cottage, including ones through the front door, Surina said. He said nine of the bullets went through the cottage and out the rear.

While Deputy Public Defender Jeffrey Wolfenbarger argued that no one was home and therefore no one was placed in danger when the bullets were fired into the cottage, Kent said that beyond the cottage there’s a grassy area covered with trees as well as structures and residences on the opposite side.

A ricochet bullet could have struck other areas, Kent said in arguing for the first-degree reckless endangering charge against Medeiros.

Judge Blaine Kobayashi found there was sufficient evidence to support the reckless endangering charge, as well as felony charges of first-degree terroristic threatening, first-degree criminal property damage, keeping a loaded firearm in an improper place, first-degree resisting an order to stop a motor vehicle, manufacturing, purchasing or obtaining firearm parts to assemble a firearm having no serial number and third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug.

Medeiros also is charged with keeping ammunition in an improper place, prohibited possession of a firearm, violating a restraining order and leaving the scene of a collision involving damage to a vehicle or property.

He is set to be arraigned Sept. 7 in 2nd Circuit Court.

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.

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