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Suspect says
he was shooting
at assassins

Peter Takeda denies aiming
at police, but one officer
says some of the 100
shots nearly hit him

---

By Treena Shapiro
Star-Bulletin

Accused Hawaii Kai gunman Peter Takeda told police he thought he was shooting at assassins out to get him when he fired about 100 shots out of his condominium and held police at bay for about five hours Monday morning.

That was the testimony of Allan Castro, lead detective in the case, during a preliminary hearing for Takeda and Gerven C. Sorino.

Both men, Castro testified, gave statements to police at the scene.

"From his apartment he could see spectators watching," Castro said. But Takeda told him while he could identify police officers, Takeda denied shooting at police.

However, police officer Curtis Kissel testified that bullets narrowly missed him when he took cover with two other officers beneath some trees.

"The bullets made a whistling sound as they cut through the air," he told the court.

District Court Judge Faauuga Tootoo found that Takeda, 38, and Sorino, 25, should stand trial on charges of first-degree attempted murder for shooting at police officers and for shooting at more than one civilian at the same time, among other charges. If convicted of first-degree attempted murder, they could face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Castro said Takeda told him he did all the shooting with a .38-caliber handgun and a .25-caliber handgun, but he said Sorino helped him load one of the guns.

In questioning Castro, Sorino's public defender Nelson Goo suggested that Sorino had been locked in Takeda's apartment and had only loaded Takeda's handgun under duress.

But the detective said none of this came up during his interview with Sorino.

Castro said Sorino indicated he had been scared during the shooting, although the defendant didn't say he was afraid of Takeda. Sorino also told the detective that he tried to get Takeda to stop shooting after he saw police.

Castro testified that Sorino said he had used crystal methamphetamine within 24 hours before giving a statement to the detective.

Sorino also lifted up his shirt to show scrapes that Goo said were the result of police dragging Sorino on the ground after his arrest.

Edward Harada, the public defender representing Takeda, was unavailable to comment on whether the arraignment would lead to a rescheduling of Takeda's trial for two counts of first-degree terroristic threatening. Takeda's trial for the February incident with his sister was set for Aug. 21.

The men are being held in lieu of $500,000 bail each. They are scheduled to be arraigned in Circuit Court on Aug. 24.