79
A man who was riding on the hood of a car that crashed into the First Insurance Building on Beretania Street last week caused the crash when he punched through the car’s window with brass knuckles, hit the driver in the head and grabbed the steering wheel, deputy prosecutor Vickie Kapp said.
An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment Thursday charging Mario Ruiz with terroristic threatening, criminal property damage, assault, use of a deadly weapon and other offenses.
His bail is $200,000. However, Ruiz remains in critical condition at the Queen’s Medical Center, Kapp said.
She said the driver, a 46-year-old woman, is Ruiz’s ex-girlfriend who had obtained a restraining order against Ruiz on Jan. 24, but police had not served Ruiz with the order.
Ruiz had stalked the woman and her new boyfriend and sent the woman harassing messages asking to get back together, Kapp said.
Police said the Jan. 26 incident began in the parking lot of the Times Supermarket Beretania store. Witnesses told police a man and woman were arguing before a car left the parking lot with a man clinging to the hood. The car traveled west on Beretania Street, weaving across all five lanes, before crashing into the First Insurance Building at the Ward Avenue intersection.
Witnesses said the crash pinned the man between the car and the building.
