KEAAU, Hawaii (KHON2) — A Hawaii County police officer is uninjured after a Toyota Tacoma drove at the officer and subsequently rammed into the driver’s side door of the officer’s vehicle.
Thirty-three-year-old Gilbert Mata was arrested while trying to run away from officers on Saturday after the vehicle incident.
A concerned citizen reported an active burglary in Hawaiian Paradise Park on Saturday afternoon.
When officers arrived they observed a “heavily tinted” truck with no front license plates at the back of the property where a warehouse stood.
As the officer got out of the car, the truck “revved its engine and accelerated at a high rate of speed towards the officer and the police vehicle.”
The officer got back into his car while the truck veered and ran over a fence then “reversed aggressively” into the police car.
After running over the fence the tire was noticeably deflated, according to HPD, but the truck still exited the property and refused to stop when officers attempted a traffic stop. It continued onto the highway, through Ainaloa and finally into Hawaiian Acres where it finally came to a stop.
The driver and a female passenger exited the truck and tried to run away from officers, dropping the backpacks they both carried, before entering nearby bushes.
They only got “approximately 10 feet in the bushes” before police detained them.
The driver was identified as Mata. The truck he was driving was from Hilo and was identified as having been stolen sometime between July 27 and 28.
Officers recovered fentanyl, methamphetamine and a meth-smoking pipe while executing a search warrant on the truck and backpacks.
Mata was charged with traffic offenses, habitual property crime, theft and drug charges. The female passenger was released pending investigation.
Anyone with information can call Detective Jeremy Kubojiri at (808) 961-2378 or email jeremy.kubojiri@hawaiicounty.gov.