A man and a woman led police on a chase yesterday that crisscrossed the island, snarled downtown traffic, led to a collision and ended in a SWAT team take-down in a parking garage.

It was the second police pursuit in as many days involving a stolen vehicle and a car crash. Again, everyone, including the suspects, escaped serious injury.

The male driver yesterday ran through a Chinatown restaurant soon after colliding with a sport-utility vehicle on Hotel Street.

Jesse Savio, 22, a musician and waiter at Indigo Eurasian Cuisine on Nu'uanu Avenue, heard a loud crash before he saw the man sprint into The Green Room of the restaurant. Savio said the man was wearing a white shirt and white pants and looked harried.

"He didn't look like a bum or anything," Savio said. "I probably guessed he was running from the cops."

Savio said the man walked behind the restaurant's main bar and into the liquor storage closet before being flushed out by a bartender, who was yelling at him while telling Savio to call police.

The man fled the restaurant before police arrived but was arrested later.

Kelly G. Hager, 36, was arrested on suspicion of car theft, leaving the scene of an accident and two drug offenses, police said.

Hager's girlfriend, Malia Waters, 27, was arrested on suspicion of third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was taken into custody at about 1:30 p.m. after Hager allegedly drove a stolen 2001 Dodge Stratus into a sport utility vehicle driven by a 35-year-old woman at the corner of Bethel and Hotel streets.

Both suspects ran from the wrecked car. Waters, who was wanted on a contempt warrant, was caught nearby.

Hager was taken into custody at about 4 p.m. after officers found him hiding under a motorcycle cover on the first-floor parking garage of the Honolulu Park Place apartment building, 1212 Nu'uanu Ave., police said.

The driver of the SUV was taken to Straub Hospital and Waters was taken to The Queen's Medical Center. Both women were in good condition, police Lt. Norman Kau said.

The pursuit began at 11:50 a.m. yesterday, when patrol officers in Punalu'u spotted Hager and Waters in a car that was reported stolen Dec. 9, police spokeswoman Michelle Yu said.

Officers tailed the car and a "brief chase" ensued but officers backed off once Hager started "speeding excessively," Yu said.

At that point, police notified their helicopter to tail the car.

HPD's helicopter followed Hager as he drove over Likelike Highway and onto H-1 Freeway, police said.

Hager allegedly sped past downtown toward East Honolulu before turning around and heading toward town. Officers did not chase at high speeds because they did not want to risk a "catastrophic" collision, police said.

Hager then allegedly drove from town to Kalihi, then to Pearl City on H-1 Freeway.

From Pearl City, he drove back toward lower Kalihi along Nimitz Highway and appeared to enter a parking garage at Honolulu International Airport, police said.

There, police lost sight of Hager's car until HPD's helicopter crew saw it on Hotel Street shortly after 1 p.m., police said.

At 1:20 p.m., Hager slammed into the SUV near the corner of Bethel and Hotel streets, flipping the SUV on its side.

Waters jumped out of the car and ran into Ross Dress for Less, police said, where she was arrested by officers and store security. Meanwhile, Hager sprinted into Indigo.

Witnesses told police they later saw Hager jump over a wall near the pool area of the apartment building at 1212 Nu'uanu.

By 2 p.m., officers with HPD's specialized services division, along with police dogs, began going floor-to-floor in the parking complex. More than 10 police vehicles clogged Nu'uanu Avenue near Beretania Street, snarling traffic for several hours.

Passersby stopped and stared as officers clad in dark-green body armor walked by with assault rifles. A sniper team watched from the roof of a parking garage across the street where officers searched.

Before searching each level of the parking garage, police yelled for Hager to surrender, then released the police dogs.

He was found, shortly after 4 p.m., hiding under a motorcycle cover about 20 feet from where police had set up a staging area.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.