Kauai drive-by shooting described

LIHUE » A National Guardsmen drinking a soda outside the Kapaa McDonald's felt a bullet "breeze" by his head, while three ministers stood just a foot from where another shot landed, witnesses testified in District Court yesterday.

Taekyu U: He was a passenger in a car in which guns and ammunition were found

A preliminary hearing was held yesterday for Taekyu U, charged with first-degree attempted murder and other charges relating to the incident last Friday at about 11 p.m.

Norman Mooney, a member of the National Guard on vacation from Las Vegas, said he heard a shot and froze while he looked at a car go by. After the second shot, which nearly hit him, he shouted, "They're shooting at us and they're using live bullets."

Mooney and Calvary Church minister Alfred Earl Rogers, visiting from Los Angeles, testified yesterday that both of them saw a silver Honda in the area while the shots were fired.

Rogers was just a few feet away from Mooney and was nearly hit by another bullet, which landed "just over my right ear," he testified.

According to court records, he also told police that the shooter might have been shooting at signs fronting the McDonald's.

Both men testified yesterday that they could not identify anyone in the car.

According to court records, police pulled over a silver Honda driven by a 17-year-old Kapaa boy 20 minutes later near Lydgate Park. U, 26, of Kapaa, was the passenger, and between the two on the center console was a box of ammunition, police said.

One officer saw the butt of a handgun underneath U's seat and arrested him on suspicion of attempted murder, illegal possession of a firearm and, after a search of U's back pocket turned up a set of metal knuckles, illegal possession of a deadly weapon, according to court records.

U, a construction worker with Kiewit Construction, is free after posting $250,000 bail.

His lawyer, Michael Green, said "the physical evidence in this case is an issue." He said tests on many pieces of evidence, such as gunshot residue, have not yet been completed.

The preliminary hearing was not completed yesterday, and was continued to July 18 at 8:30 a.m.

The juvenile who was driving the car remains in custody. A Family Court hearing to determine whether he will be charged as an adult has been scheduled, prosecutors said.