Shaun Paulo was reaching for an "ice" pipe when his friend, who was sitting across from him, shot him in the right arm with a sawed-off shotgun in Windward Oahu, according to testimony in Honolulu District Court on Wednesday.
"You shot me. What are you doing?" Paulo asked his friend, grabbing him by the shoulder.
"It was an accident," replied Peter Picanco Sr.
Paulo said the gun had been lying in the middle of a round table that he, Picanco and two women were sitting at in Picanco’s Waiahole Valley Road home. Picanco had raised the gun just before it went off, Paulo said.
Paulo gave the account of the shooting as his buddy sat in shackles at a courtroom table.
Picanco, 44, has been charged with four felonies for the Dec. 20 incident: second-degree attempted murder, carrying a firearm in the commission of a felony, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and ownership of a shotgun with a barrel shorter than 18 inches.
Judge Lono Lee sent Picanco’s case to Circuit Court for trial and confirmed his bail at $250,000. Picanco was returned to the Oahu Community Correctional Center.
Paulo said that after the shooting, Picanco helped make a tourniquet with Paulo’s belt. Paulo rode in a friend’s car to the hospital and Picanco followed on his motorcycle, yelling into the window that the shooting was an accident and that they didn’t need to make a police report.
At the hospital, Paulo’s friends departed and when police tried to question Paulo, he didn’t make a statement, he said, because he wanted the staff to focus on saving his life.
"I was bleeding profusely the whole time," he said. "It was just gushing."