HILO — A 65-year-old Pahoa man has been indicted by a Hilo grand jury for an armed standoff last month in Puna during which a police officer was shot.
The seven-count indictment returned Wednesday charges Albert Huihui Puu with attempted first-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, first-degree reckless endangering, possessing a firearm without a permit or registration, possessing a prohibited pistol magazine and harassment.
Puu is accused of holding off police in Hawaiian Beaches subdivision for more than 8.5 hours late Feb. 21 and early Feb. 22.
Police responded at 10:22 p.m. Feb. 21 to a reported assault on Oio Street. As officers approached Puu’s home, he allegedly fired a single gunshot at police, striking two-year veteran Puna patrol officer Roger Carvalho in the thigh. Carvalho has since been released from the hospital.
None of the officers returned fire, police said, and Puu allegedly fled deeper onto his property.
After executing a search warrant, the police Special Response Team found Puu Feb. 22 in a shed behind his Oio Street home with a Glock 21 .45 caliber handgun close at hand. Puu was then arrested without further incident.
The reported assault was an altercation with his neighbor preceding the standoff, according to court documents.
Puu’s neighbor requested Puu, who was allegedly intoxicated, lower the volume of his music and stop shouting profanities at her.
Hearing this, Puu reportedly reached over the fence that separates their two properties, seized the neighbor’s phone from her hand, threw it to the ground, saying, “I’m going to beat the (expletive) out of you.”
The neighbor called police immediately afterward. Puu’s harassment charge stems from this incident.
Puu was scheduled for a preliminary hearing March 29 in Hilo District Court. The indictment, however, makes the hearing to establish probable cause hearing unnecessary, and Puu will instead be arraigned in Hilo Circuit Court after he is re-arrested for the indictment.
He remains in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center in lieu of $515,500 bail.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.