Victim recounts defying gunmen
Still sleepy after a visit to the hospital, Mark McMeechan felt fury overcome his fear as armed intruders claiming to be federal agents threatened to shoot him.
"I said, 'Yeah, shoot me,'" he recalled yesterday. "'I'm 58 years old and I'm this close to dying. I'm not afraid of you.'"
Thinking back, McMeechan realizes he probably should not have provoked the robbers. "By this time I was just really, really angry," he said.
Police are looking for three men in connection with yesterday's pre-dawn home invasion in Maili. A 24-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of first-degree robbery after allegedly trying to flee from police with the other suspects.
McMeechan, who was home with his family during the robbery, said his son recognized the suspect they arrested as an acquaintance of his girlfriend's.
Shortly before 1:44 a.m., four men forced their way into McMeechan's home on Kulaaupuni Street.
The men, who wore ski masks and dark shirts marked "DEA," initially identified themselves as agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Two were armed -- with a semiautomatic pistol and a revolver.
Groggy after a visit to the hospital a day earlier for a heart check-up, McMeechan stood by until one of the men left the home with his son's safe. That's when the family asked the "agents" for identification. The man with the revolver put the barrel to McMeechan's head and asked whether he wanted to be shot.
McMeechan told the suspects to just take what they want and leave without hurting anybody. He recalled looking into the eyes of all four robbers.
The man with the revolver pistol-whipped McMeechan, who had a scratch on his forehead yesterday afternoon.
The men took a purse and other belongings before firing two shots into the air and fleeing in a black Chevy Blazer.
Police posted an all-points bulletin. An officer located the Blazer in the Ocean Pointe subdivision in Ewa Beach and chased it to Oneula Beach Park, where the suspects fled on foot.
About 2:20 a.m., one of the men was caught on nearby Papipi Road. The suspect has no local address. He has twice been convicted of third-degree assault, in 2003 and 2004.
McMeechan said his son's girlfriend knows the arrested suspect as an acquaintance. He had even been at the home before.
He said he hopes the other suspects will turn themselves in, knowing that the family has started to piece together the identities of the other men.
The former Waipahu resident moved to Maili three years ago and said he had never been the victim of a robbery before.
"I moved out here because I thought it was safer," he said, touching his forehead. "I'm just glad nobody got hurt."
