Officer who was shot
says he thought of his
children, death

By Susan Kreifels
Star-Bulletin

Police officer Earl Haskell remembers feeling the sun on his face, but his body was cold from the chest down. He couldn't feel his legs.

The faces of his children flashed before his eyes.

He thought he was going to die.

A man suspected of a car break-in at Makapuu Lighthouse Road already had shot him once, the officer said. Then the suspect held the gun to Haskell's head.

"I was looking right in the barrel," Haskell told jurors yesterday, fighting back tears.

The dramatic testimony came on the second day of trial against Peter Moses, charged with the attempted murders of two officers. Moses, 21, also faces theft and other related charges in the trial before Circuit Judge Marie Milks.

Moses contends the shooting was accidental and occurred during a struggle with Haskell.

Haskell said he called for backup on Sept. 11, 1998, when he suspected Moses of breaking into a car. Officers John Veneri and Laura Chong responded.

Moses resisted arrest and having handcuffs put on him, pulling his arms away forcefully and kicking Chong, Haskell testified. Moses, 6 feet 2 inches and 280 pounds, grabbed the smaller Veneri and lifted the officer off the ground.

In the scuffle, Haskell said he fell on top of Moses, who had been carrying a screwdriver but no gun.

"I heard John yelling 'Gun, watch out, gun,' " said Haskell, who has undergone at least two surgeries and had half his colon and a part of his small intestines removed. "I heard a gun go off. It sounded far away. It felt like somebody shot me in the stomach."

Haskell said he pulled himself up and ran into the bushes onto a trail. He heard gunshots and Veneri yell, "Drop the gun," but saw no one.

Under cross-examination, Haskell said he didn't see Veneri hit Moses or hold him by the hair.

Chong testified yesterday that Moses kneed Veneri in the stomach, and she saw a gun in Moses' left hand.

Veneri used her gun to fire many times, she said.

In earlier statements to the city prosecutor's office, the officers said Haskell stopped Moses as he walked down the road and questioned whether the items he carried were stolen from a car parked nearby.

The officers said they had not expected Moses to be violent when they moved to arrest him, and that Moses grabbed Veneri's handgun during the scuffle and shot Haskell. Moses then turned the weapon toward the other officers as he ran across Kalanianaole Highway and climbed into Haskell's patrol car to escape, they said. Moses fired a shot at Veneri before his weapon jammed.

Veneri then returned fire 32 times, hitting Moses eight times, the statements said.

A police Internal Affairs investigation concluded the use of deadly force was justified because Veneri was protecting himself and Chong. The city prosecutor's office cleared Veneri of any wrongdoing the next month.