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Hawaii Kai Michelle Sanchez called roofers to her Hawaii Kai Drive home today to check for bullet holes in her roof.
uneasy after volley
of gunfire
Residents reflect on
yesterday's wild shooting in the
quiet neighborhoodSuspect lost his job and wife
By Leila Fujimori
Star-BulletinLast night, she and other residents were questioned by police about gunfire that may have hit their homes yesterday morning. The officers climbed on the Sanchez roof but, in the darkness, failed to find any bullet holes.
At 2:30 a.m. yesterday, Sanchez and her husband awoke to what sounded like thumping on their roof and suspected a prowler. But when their dogs showed no concern, they went back to sleep.
The cause of the noise was Peter Takeda, who was directly across the street, shooting wildly from his sixth-floor apartment in the Heritage condominium building. The shooting lasted from about 1 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. He was accompanied by a Waipahu man, Gervin C. Sorvino.
Two semi-automatic weapons were found inside the apartment -- a 25-caliber and a 38-caliber.Sorvino, of Pupukahi Street, and Takeda were arrested and each was booked on four counts of first-degree attempted murder, two counts of kidnapping and four counts of first-degree reckless endangering.
The attempted murder counts were for allegedly firing at police officers. The reckless endangering involved shots fired into a neighbor's apartment, police said.
"Numerous" bullets that were fired by the suspect penetrated the wall of the suspect's apartment and entered the next door neighbor's unit, according to a detective. The neighboring unit had four people inside -- a boy,12, a girl, 15, and their mother and grandmother. None was injured.
Lt. William Kato said bullet holes were found in at least three houses directly across the street. The Sanchez house was in the direct line of fire, since Takeda was shooting at police officers in the street.
Sanchez believes the thumping on her roof was the sound of bullets.
"It's really frightening to think there's a madman across the street from your home with a gun," she said.
But at 6 a.m. yesterday, Sanchez walked her dogs outside the house, still with no clue as to what was going on.
Not until two members of the Specialized Services Division came up from the marina behind their home and told them they had to evacuate did they learn what was happening.
The couple bought their luxury home with thick walls and security gates a year ago in what they believed to be one of Oahu's better neighborhoods.
"Now, more than ever, I'd like to see gun control," Sanchez said.
Meanwhile, nearby residents were still shaken last evening.A woman living two floors directly below Takeda immediately called police and the resident manager after she heard the first shots. The woman, who just moved from Atlanta, was so fearful that she made the resident manager come to get her and sat in his apartment from 1 a.m. until 5 a.m. yesterday. She wasn't sure if she would be able to stay in her apartment last night.
"This sort of thing happens in Atlanta," she said. "That's why I moved into this complex -- people seemed so upstanding."
But Gwen Albert, who lives next door to Takeda's condominium, said she wasn't scared at all and only heard two shots the entire time.
Albert, who is hearing-impaired, said, "It was no big deal as far as I was concerned.
"It was bit of a shock that something like that happened here, but we're all back to normal," Albert said yesterday afternoon.
Residents who live across the canal behind the Sanchez home heard the gunshots.
Larry Snyder was one of them. He awoke to the sound of gunfire at 2:30 a.m. His friend from Los Angeles called during the shooting, so Snyder put the phone out to let him hear the gunfire.
"The wildest thing was seeing two SWAT team guys on my neighbor's roof," Snyder said.
His neighbor, Walter Hosokawa, who lives two houses away, was getting pastries from Zippy's Restaurant at 5:15 a.m. yesterday. When he tried to return home, the streets were barricaded. He called his wife and learned two SWAT team officers were on their roof.
His wife and mother were evacuated, and they waited out the standoff with Hosokawa at Zippy's.
Sanchez, who could see the SWAT team across the canal, said: "It all seems surreal. It really hasn't sunk in that somebody was shooting at our house.
"I just want to feel safe again."
Shooting suspect’s Hours before Peter Takeda began firing bullets from his Hawaii Kai apartment early yesterday morning, his estranged wife stopped by to drop off their 5-year-old daughter.
estranged wife:
I still love him;
I tried my best
Her husband, who fired off
some 75 shots, had lost his job
and suffered from a
back problemBy Leila Fujimori and Debra Barayuga
Star-BulletinThe little girl was supposed to start kindergarten yesterday.
But that didn't happen.
Instead, after his estranged wife and daughter had left, the 38-year-old Hawaii Kai man started shooting -- an estimated 75 shots -- out of his apartment.
Police aren't saying why, but court records and interviews show Takeda was going through an emotionally trying time and had a history of violence.
Takeda, who had signed divorce papers last month, was two weeks away from a trial on assault charges, was unemployed and had been on medication for back pain.
With him during the standoff was Gerven C Sorvino, a 25-year-old Waipahu man.
Sorvino was on five years' probation for a terroristic threatening conviction for a Feb. 5, 1998, incident.
Sorvino also has five misdemeanor convictions for contempt of court.
Takeda had been separated for almost two years from his wife of four years, Ana Palomar Caballero Takeda, 39.
They signed divorce papers less than three weeks ago.
"I still love him, but I can't live with him already," Ana Takeda said. "I tried my best."
On Sunday, Peter Takeda left her numerous phone messages in which he swore at her and accused her of stealing cigarettes, though she doesn't smoke, she said.
When she tried to drop their daughter off, he told her to bring the girl up to his apartment.
Fearing her husband, she insisted on meeting in the lobby. When he refused, she left with her daughter.
The next morning, police contacted her and informed her of the shooting.
She was shocked because she had never seen the firearms.
During their marriage, she said, she could not take Takeda's arguing and swearing at her, and the couple had broken up several times.
But she said he never got violent with her, and she was unaware he possessed any firearms.
"I called the police twice," she said.
Takeda is also awaiting trial on Aug. 21 for threatening his sister with a knife during an argument. Although Takeda had pleaded no contest in March, he withdrew his plea on June 23.
He could face a 5-year term on each count.
"He can't handle his problems," Ana Takeda said.
She said he had been laid off from his job for several months because of a back problem, for which he takes medication, and that he often was grouchy.
Takeda was a technical service coordinator at SDU Telecommunications.
He had sought custody of their daughter.
The divorce is still pending the court's formal order.
"I told him don't bother me any more, find somebody else, have a good life," Ana Takeda said.
But today, she just wanted to take her daughter to school.