Vesper will face
grand jury

Prosecutors will seek an
indictment in the case
involving injury to
a police officer

City prosecutors will likely take the first-degree, attempted-murder case against Daniel Vesper III before a state grand jury, according to those close to the investigation.

Vesper, 43, who had been on the run from police since he allegedly ran over an undercover officer Thursday, was arrested on a first-degree criminal property damage warrant stemming from a Nov. 20 incident, and is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail in the case. Because Vesper is already in custody on a high-bail warrant, police do not have to meet the 48-hour deadline for charging suspects after they have been arrested.

Vesper became the focus of an intensive manhunt after he allegedly ran over officer Jeffrey Omai at the Honolulu Community College parking lot Thursday. Omai was a part of a Crime Reduction Unit team that identified the van Vesper was driving as the same one that was involved in an armed robbery at the University of Hawaii-Manoa campus earlier that day.

According to police, about eight CRU officers were exiting a police van when Vesper allegedly accelerated toward them. Though most of the officers managed to get out of the way, Omai had exited the van from the back doors and did not see the vehicle coming toward them as he turned the corner.

Omai was initially taken to the Queens Medical Center in critical condition, but was later upgraded to guarded condition, with head injuries and possible internal injuries.

On Friday, police received a number of tips about Vesper's whereabouts, which led them to scour the Kailhi area with house-to-house manhunts. Vesper was finally caught hiding behind a two-story apartment building at 738 Umi St. after children pointed him out to police, saying they saw him riding a bicycle then hopping a fence.