Attorneys dueled Tuesday over the descriptions of the actions taken by three Honolulu police officers during 16-year-old Iremamber Sykap’s final moments as both sides sought to assign responsibility for the deadly showdown April 5 on Kalakaua Avenue.

Officers Geoffrey H.L. Thom, Zackary K. Ah Nee and Christopher J. Fredeluces sat silently during the fifth day of their preliminary hearing as their attorneys told Deputy Prosecutor Christopher T. Van Marter and Judge William M. Domingo that they were justified to use deadly force. Domingo will decide whether there is enough evidence for the officers to stand trial.

Sykap’s reckless refusal to surrender, leading officers on a high-speed pursuit, and intelligence provided by their supervisors that Sykap and his crew were in the midst of an escalating series of armed robberies using handguns over a 48-hour period, including a home invasion, left the officers few choices, their attorneys argued.

Sykap died of multiple gunshot wounds after he was hit eight times in the back by rounds from Thom’s 9 mm Glock service weapon. Thom is charged with second-degree murder. Ah Nee and Fredeluces are charged with second-degree attempted murder for firing into the vehicle from the side and as it went over a sidewalk and into a canal.

Richard H.S. Sing, who represents Thom; Crystal K. Glendon, counsel for Fredeluces; and Ah Nee’s attorney, Thomas M. Otake, introduced the officers’ fears and motivations at the moment of the shooting by cross-examining Van Marter’s witness, HPD Lt. Brandon Nakasone, from the Professional Standards Office.

They asked Nakasone about the officers’ individual incident reports that detailed how they all believed Sykap and his car mates posed a deadly threat to themselves and the community and would escape by any means necessary, including driving through their fellow officers who they said were in front of and behind Sykap’s car, ordering him to stop.

Van Marter objected, arguing the defense could not introduce the reports as evidence. Otake countered that the complaint used to charge the officers after a grand jury declined to return a true bill quoted the same reports.

“I would hope, in the interest of transparency, the prosecutor would welcome what was written in this report,” Otake said.

Judge Domingo agreed and allowed the questioning to continue.

“I want to see everything,” Domingo told the prosecution. “You want me to make a decision on a situation, I want to see everything.”

At the start of the officers’ shift April 5, their watch commander warned the entire lineup about armed suspects wanted for a series of robberies at gunpoint who were moving around in a stolen white Honda Civic with Texas plates.

Fredeluces and Thom were dispatched at 4:42 p.m. to stop Sykap after a woman recognized the stolen Civic near Kawaikui Beach Park and called police, minutes after two men with guns were reported leaving a home invasion on Isenberg Street in Moiliili in the same car.

Sykap ignored multiple verbal warnings barked over a loudspeaker by Fredeluces before leading him and Thom, who was riding shotgun, on a high-speed pursuit at speeds as fast as 80 mph on the freeway and through residential neighborhoods downtown, before they ran out of road at the intersection of Kalakaua Avenue and Philip Street, according to Fredeluces’ incident report, discussed by Glendon in court.

“The crimes were escalating, correct?” Glendon asked Nakasone.

“Yes,” he replied.

What the officers said happened and what their body camera footage revealed were often at odds, Van Marter countered, as he detailed the shooting by going frame by frame through body-worn camera footage and sharing photos of scuff marks and paint chipping on Fredeluces’ police vehicle that investigators could not say was a result of a collision with Sykap’s stolen car.

“At any time is anyone behind that car when it reverses?” Van Marter asked Nakasone, referring to the footage from the shooting reviewed by investigators.

“Based on the body-worn camera, I would say no,” Nakasone said.

“Is there anyone in front of the vehicle?” Van Marter asked.

“No. … The investigation, which is not complete, has not revealed that anyone was standing directly in front of the white Honda,” Nakasone replied.

Nakasone would later explain that body-worn cameras do not capture everything the officer sees and that the Professional Standards Office does not rely solely on their footage in any investigation.

Sing asked Nakasone to confirm that police recovered a handgun, which turned out to be an airsoft pistol that Nakasone agreed looked like a real firearm. Investigators also recovered a pipe for smoking crystal methamphetamine, magazines with real ammunition and gunshot residue from the occupants of the Civic. Sykap had methamphetamine in his system at the time of his death.

Thom wrote that Sykap drove through red lights and intersections and was “beyond reckless” and put the public at “grave risk,” Sing detailed.

The hearing continues today at 1:30 p.m.

At the end of more than two hours of testimony, the prosecution and defense got heated over attempts to introduce competing expert witnesses to testify about proper use of deadly force. Both sides lamented the introduction of the witnesses in the final days of the hearing and traded accusations of inaccurate representation.

Domingo ruled that the prosecution could introduce their witness as a rebuttal to the defense’s if it came to that.

“Never mind backbiting each other,” Domingo snapped. “I’ve had enough already.”