A police officer, who was seated inside his car when it was shot Saturday, testified Thursday at a preliminary hearing he felt it shake after a 42-year-old Kahaluu man fired multiple rounds from a shotgun into it.
Officer Denis Carino, who had just finished responding to an unrelated suspicious circumstance case at a Kahaluu house, saw Glendon Young sitting alone at a bus stop across Kamehameha Highway with a black bag between his legs.
“He was looking at me, staring at me, like maybe he was upset at something, staring me down,” Carino said on the witness stand. After getting into his police-subsidized vehicle, “I heard a loud bang,” and felt the car move.
Young entered the courtroom, arms crossed and ankles shackled, for a preliminary hearing in District Court in Honolulu before Judge Lono Lee on first-degree attempted murder, weapons and drug charges.
Carino said eight to nine 9 millimeter bullet or BB holes were found in the back panel to the rear of the passenger-side back door of his black Dodge Charger, which had illuminated blue dome lights. He and the three other officers there were all in uniform, he said.
Carino said he immediately jumped out of the car, and, “I ran down the driveway as fast as I can,” yelling, “shots fired,” to warn his partners, then took cover behind the engine block of a blue-and-white police car.
Carino said he drew his gun. Then he had glanced up briefly before running down, and saw Young, who was wearing camouflage clothes, holding a shotgun with two hands, the barrel pointing down and forward.
More shots could have been fired, but the shotgun apparently jammed.
Officer Jason Sarabia testified he saw inside the chamber of the shotgun a discharged round stuck with a live round underneath.
He also found in Young’s pocket a glass pipe and what appeared to be crystal methamphetamine in a zip-close bag.
Sarabia’s car was parked in the driveway at the house, which is located down a slope at 47-201 Old Kamehameha Highway. Sarabia said he heard a loud boom consistent with a shotgun just as he and another officer entered the vehicle.
The officers crept up the driveway looking for the gunman. Meanwhile a fourth officer arrived on scene, parking along the highway and in the “hot zone,” the officers said.
Sarabia said they were in a vulnerable position, being lower than the roadway, and that the shooter could have fired down on them.
He said he saw Young and could see the top of the shotgun. He yelled expletives at Young and commanded him to show his hands. He heard the weapon hit the pavement.
Sarabia testified that Young resisted arrest, refusing to put his right hand behind his back after his left was handcuffed and trying to get up while the shotgun was near his leg.
Lee continued the preliminary hearing, which will resume Jan. 26 at 1:30 p.m.
