Man in chase
called a ‘maniac’Witnesses tell how they were
accosted by the two defendants
Frederick Pattachia Sr. was driving on Kamehameha Highway in Haleiwa on Friday when he saw two men in a silver Honda "terrorizing" the occupants of a white car they had forced off the road.
Pattachia stopped and looked out his window to see one of the men walking toward his van with a club-like device in hand, telling him to get out of vehicle.
"I thought, 'I'm not in a good position here' and started to back my van up," Pattachia said.
He left enough room for the white car to pull away, but the male kept coming. As the male got closer, he struck the hood of Pattachia's van with the club.
Afraid that the male would jump into his van through his open side door, "I used my car to protect myself and put it in gear and slowly went forward, pushing him backward, and he fell over the guardrail," Pattachia testified in District Court yesterday during a preliminary hearing for the two males.
Pattachia pointed to a man with closely shaved hair wearing a blue paper jumpsuit as the man who came at him with the club. The man, Frederick J. Morales, 25, was arrested at the scene after he and another man also in the courtroom, later identified as Brandon Ikaika Molina, 22, tried to flee in a black pickup truck that Molina allegedly had hijacked from another motorist.
Morales and Molina are charged with first-degree robbery and car theft that stemmed from a more than two-hour police chase that began in Halawa, went through Windward Oahu and the North Shore and finally ended in Waipahu.
Molina also faces a first-degree robbery charge for robbing Michael Meierdiercks of the black pickup, and attempted first-degree assault for striking a police officer who was directing traffic in Laie. Morales also faces two drug charges stemming from an "ice" pipe that police recovered on the ground where he had lain during his arrest.
District Judge Leslie Hayashi found there was probable cause to believe that Molina and Morales committed the offenses they are charged with and sent their cases to Circuit Court. They are expected to be arraigned April 5. Molina remains in custody on $250,000 bail. Morales is being held on $50,000 bail.
Pattachia said that after Morales fell over the guardrail, he saw Molina run across the road to a pickup truck and smash the windshield on the driver's side with a club.
Meanwhile, he said, the male he had pushed over the guardrail was attempting to get back into the silver Honda, so Pattachia backed his van up to the Honda to prevent it from being driven away.
Meierdiercks, who had been heading to the Haleiwa dump, testified that he had slowed down when he came upon the scene because he believed there had been a traffic accident. But then he saw two men running around with clubs and one of them ran up to him telling him to stop before smashing in his windshield.
"I sped up, fearing for my life -- that this person was a maniac and thought this person was going to kill me," Meierdiercks said.
Unable to see through the shattered windshield, Meierdiercks went about 50 feet before stopping. The man began punching him in the head through the open window as he pushed his way into the truck. Meierdiercks said he tried to fend the man off but finally got out of the truck when the man ordered him out, calling him an expletive.
Pattachia said he backed his van into the truck to block it, and that Morales also tried to jump into the truck, but was unsuccessful.
"The driver turned the car and took off down the (Joseph Leong) bypass, and the other guy fell on the ground as the black pickup drove away," Pattachia said.
Molina was later apprehended in Waipahu after colliding head-on with a Toyota pickup near Mokuola Street.
Earlier on Kamehameha Highway in Hauula, officer Eric Kirby had been directing traffic when he saw a light-colored Honda pull out from a row of stopped cars and straight toward him.
"I told myself, I'm about to be run over," Kirby testified. "The car came at me, I raised my hand, drew my weapon and just started shooting."
The Honda struck him in the thigh, but he managed to stay upright. He got off five shots, Kirby said.
Morales admitted to police the day after he was arrested that Molina, whom he has known for eight years, had picked him up early Friday in a stolen car.
Morales said Molina drove the Honda for most of the ensuing police chase, and that Molina tried to pull an elderly woman out of her car in Laie.
He also told Detective James Anderson that he couldn't believe it when Molina drove toward the police officer in Hauula at about 45 mph. He said he knew that they had been hit by the officer's bullets when the window shattered on the passenger side where he was sitting.
