Posted on: Friday, March 7, 2003

Sources, affidavit detail what happened on fatal day

 • Ex-con was out of prison on earlier deal
 • Gaspar services scheduled

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

The former girlfriend of Shane Mark, suspected in Tuesday's murder of officer Glen Gaspar, had agreed to meet Mark at an ice cream shop in Kapolei with their 9-year-old daughter and planned to tell him that she was afraid of him and wanted to take the little girl and leave Hawai'i, according to a police affidavit in the case and police sources familiar with the investigation.

At 11 a.m., police received a tip about the meeting and six members of the Career Criminal Unit had about 45 minutes to respond. Carrying a photo of Mark, the plainclothes unit kept watch over the Baskin-Robbins store at Kapolei Shopping Center for about 20 minutes before Mark's ex-girlfriend, Melissa Sennett, their 9-year-old daughter and Sennett's boyfriend entered the store, the affidavit said.

For 50 minutes, officers kept an eye on the scene until Mark arrived, waving to Sennett and their daughter from outside the store. Gaspar and another officer approached the store while two other plainclothes detectives drove to the front of the store in an undercover van, the affidavit said.

Police have previously said they had decided not to confront Mark in the parking lot because of the potential threat of a shootout.

When police entered, identified themselves and confronted Mark, Sennett and the child left the store. The officers expected Mark, a fugitive wanted in a Feb. 1 shooting, to be armed but they weren't prepared for such a vicious struggle.

Honolulu Police Chief Lee Donohue has said it took three officers to subdue the 5-foot-6, 150-pound man.

In the affidavit, one of the officers said he saw Gaspar and another officer struggling with Mark. He said he jumped from the van, ran into the store and yelled "police!" as he grabbed Mark and tried to force him to the ground, ordering him to stop fighting. The two men fell to the ground as two shots rang out, the affidavit said.

A moment later, Mark fired a third time and the officer, lying on the ground, heard Gaspar say, "I've been shot." Gaspar's eyes were closed, according to the affidavit.

The officers continued to struggle with Mark, who pointed a small, blue revolver with a wood grip at two other officers. One of them said he grabbed the gun, pulling it from Mark's hand while the other officer placed handcuffs on Mark, the affidavit said.

Police sources, who asked not to identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said that Sennett's current boyfriend was outside the store filming with a video camera but that footage, which has been seized and turned over to prosecutors, did not show what took place inside the store.

Preliminary results from a toxicology performed at St. Francis Medical Center-West following Mark's arrest Tuesday indicated he may have been under the influence of alcohol and seven drugs, including phencyclidine or PCP, also known as "angel dust," the police sources said. The lab findings also indicated use of crystal methamphetamine, marijuana, cocaine and barbiturates among other drugs, the sources said.

Medical experts say the combination of such drugs is lethal.

"The use of one drug in combination with several others will make all of them slightly more effective and slightly more toxic," said Kathleen Kozak, internist at Straub Clinic & Hospital. "The crazy behavior, the violent activity, the disordered thinking, the hallucinations and delusions, the sudden feeling of agitation and all of those sorts of symptoms ... the worst of those symptoms, are magnified."

People who abuse PCP describe feelings of extra strength, power and invulnerability, reports the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"It can make you suddenly break out and be extremely violent," Kozak said. "... It can mimic the symptoms of schizophrenia, like paranoia and disordered thinking."

Kozak said the drug, which is addicting and can possibly lead to coma or death in high doses, is also a stimulant.

"It can actually at times increase a person's perception of their strength and allow them to perform actions that they may not normally be able to do," Kozak said.

Donohue said yesterday he is concerned that PCP is resurfacing.

Officials at Hina Mauka, the state's largest provider of alcohol- and drug-treatment services, said they only treat people for it occasionally.

"It isn't anything that we see with any common regularity," said M.P. "Andy" Anderson, chief executive officer of Hina Mauka.

PCP, a white crystalline powder that is readily soluble in water or alcohol, is normally snorted, smoked or eaten, the drug institute reports.

The drug was developed in the 1950s as an intravenous anesthetic. Its use in humans was discontinued in 1965 because patients often became agitated and delusional while recovering from its effects.

PCP was introduced as a street drug in Hawai'i in the late 1960s, Anderson said, and it was very popular in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Advertiser staff writers Scott Ishikawa and Zenaida Serrano Espanol contributed to this report.