Police officer Gaspar's last words: 'I'm shot'

By David Waite and Mike Gordon
Advertiser Courts Writer

Chilling snippets of videotape capturing the final moments of Honolulu police officer Glen Gaspar's life were shown to a jury yesterday in the opening day of the trial of accused killer Shane Mark, whose lawyer said he mistook officers seeking to apprehend him as men seeking revenge from a previous shooting.

Prosecutors' video, taken by a third party at a Kapolei ice cream store, shows Shane Mark's daughter waiting to see him. Mark reaches into his pocket.

Mark is confronted by Officer Glen Gaspar, wearing aloha shirt on right, who tried to arrest him in connection with a Feb. 1 shooting in Moanalua. (Prosecutors superimposed the wording over the image.)

The videotape ends moments before the start of the shooting that left Gaspar fatally wounded. Prosecutors say Mark also tried to shoot Officer Calvin Sung, who joined Gaspar in approaching the suspect. Photos courtesy prosecutor's office

When two police officers grabbed Mark at the Baskin-Robbins store in Kapolei Shopping Center on March 4, they had not identified themselves and forced Mark into a confined area of the store and blocked his retreat, Loy said.

But city Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Van Marter told the jury that Mark knew warrants for his arrest had been issued for the Moanalua incident charging him with two counts of attempted second-degree murder and that Mark had decided to "shoot his way out" of any attempt by police to arrest him.

Mark made good on that vow when Gaspar and fellow officer Calvin Sung sought to arrest him just before 1 p.m. at the ice cream store, Van Marter said.

Mark fired two shoots from a .22-caliber Smith and Wesson revolver at point-blank range, hitting Gaspar in the left chest, severely damaging his liver, stomach and pancreas — and piercing his heart, Van Marter said. A third shot hit Gaspar in the left hand and came to rest in his backup ammunition pouch.

At one point, Van Marter said, Gaspar turned toward his fellow officers.

"He says, 'I'm shot,' " Van Marter recounted. "Those were his last words, because in a couple of seconds, he loses consciousness."

Meeting with ex-girlfriend

Van Marter told the jury that Mark had gone to the ice cream store to meet former girlfriend Melissa Sennett, the mother of Mark's 10-year-old daughter, Shansy. Sennett, who lives in Kansas, was in Hawai'i on vacation.

At a prior reunion with Mark, she learned he was a fugitive. After Mark arranged the Baskin-Robbins meeting March 4, Sennett called CrimeStoppers and told police when and where they would see each other, Van Marter said.

Sennett's boyfriend was there to videotape the meeting, and Van Marter flashed stills from that videotape onto a courtroom screen. What was meant to be a keepsake of the reunion between father and daughter became a documentary of the final moments of Gaspar's life.

"He's trying to record Shansy's last contact with her biological father before they leave for the Mainland, and the defendant gets arrested for these serious crimes," Van Marter said.

The images showed Shansy, her head resting on a restaurant table, and Mark behind her as he reaches into his right pocket, where Van Marter said the gun was.

'Can we talk to you...?'

Shane Mark never intended to shoot anyone, his lawyer said. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

One of the videotape images from inside the store is superimposed with the words: " 'Hey, Get Your Hands Up, Police'!"

Van Marter said witnesses will testify that Gaspar and Sung lifted their shirts to reveal their badges and handguns as they approached Mark and identified themselves repeatedly as police officers.

The videotape ends moments before the shooting began, signaling the point at which Sennett, her boyfriend and Shansy left.

Van Marter said it took approximately three minutes from the time Gaspar and Sung first approached Mark to the point where Mark was subdued, pushed to the floor and handcuffed with the assistance of four other police officers who entered the store.

Gaspar was rushed to St. Francis-West Medical Center and declared dead after doctors found "no pulse, no blood pressure, no heartbeat," Van Marter said.

Loy, however, said Mark never intended to shoot, much less kill anyone. She described Mark as the product of a broken home who was raised by an "inattentive father" and a series of stepmothers, many of whom were abusive.

She said Mark dropped out of Waialua High School and had a difficult time finding a job.

'On the cusp' of surrender

Greig Gaspar, brother of the late Officer Glen Gaspar, hears the prosecution in yesterday's trial describe the policeman's last words in the fatal confrontation in the Kapolei ice cream store. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

"He was on the cusp of turning himself in," Loy said.

She said Mark fired shots at John Piko and Denny Paikai at the Moanalua church in hopes of frightening them away. Loy said Mark had gone to the church to confront the two over a broken video camera that the two had traded to him in exchange for what Van Marter described in his opening statement as "an item worth $150." (In pretrial hearings, Van Marter said Mark traded $150 worth of crystal methamphetamine for the camera. But a prior court ruling barred him from telling the jury that the item traded was crystal meth because it would be harmful to Mark's defense.)

Loy said Piko and Paikai became abusive toward Mark after he told them he wanted to be paid back for the camera. The two men said they had no money and would take the camera and pay Mark later, she said.

She said Mark fired a warning shot at Piko as he was running away and shot Paikai in the leg when he did not leave the area.

But Paikai, who was called as one of the first prosecution witnesses yesterday, denied he and Piko intended to hurt Mark, whom he said he had never met until earlier that day.

Members of Gaspar's family were in the courtroom, including his brother, Greig, and his parents, Evangeline and Gilbert Sr.

"Without everyone's support over the past few months, we would have been overcome by grief and sadness," Greig Gaspar said in a written statement issued to reporters. "This past Thanksgiving was extremely difficult. We were surrounded by family, yet no matter where I looked in the room, Glen was missing."

Mark's trial before Circuit Judge Karen Ahn is expected to last up to two weeks, with the prosecution taking about a week to 10 days and calling as many as 40 witnesses.

Loy would not say yesterday if Mark plans to take the stand in his own defense.

Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.