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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Ice, pot found in ex-con's system

By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer

Tracy Peters

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The career criminal gunned down by police Saturday after he paced up and down a Wai'anae street firing a shotgun into the air had crystal methamphetamine and marijuana in his system, according to the city medical examiner's office.

Tracy Kaikealoha Henry Peters, 47, who was shot twice by a police officer during a one-hour standoff on Kaukama Road on Saturday evening, did not have alcohol or other drugs in his system, according to the results of a toxicology screen performed on his urine. The presence of crystal methamphetamine was confirmed by a blood test, according to the medical examiner's office.

Peters had prior arrests and convictions for methamphetamine offenses and had tested positive twice for methamphetamine while on parole, according to state officials.

Police officers closed Kaukama Road from 6:45 to 8 p.m. Saturday after Peters was reported walking up and down the street firing a shotgun into the air, police said. Dressed in a black trench coat and occasionally jumping in and out of a car, he was described by police at the scene as "erratic."

Witnesses said Peters yelled at police and tried to goad them into shooting him.

Peters was shot after placing his shotgun on the ground, pulling two handguns from his waistband and pointing them at Specialized Services Division officers.

He had been released from prison Dec. 1 after spending most of his life after age 19 behind bars for firearm offenses, drugs and violent behavior. Peters' odyssey through the prison system began when he was charged in July 1977 with being an accomplice to Kenneth Allen Smith in the killing of an Army sentry.

Peters and Smith attempted to steal a gun from Spc. James Lee Veal at the Wai'anae Army Rest Center. Veal was killed with a shotgun, and Smith was sentenced to life in prison. Peters was convicted as a youthful offender in 1978 and sentenced to four years in prison.

In 1983 Peters was charged with two counts of attempted murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm after he shot his girlfriend in the knee with a shotgun when she got out of her car in front of Peters' home on Wai'anae Valley Road on New Year's Day. Peters also fired at the woman's brother-in-law who he thought was dating his girlfriend.

City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle, who prosecuted Peters for the 1983 shooting, said Peters' friends nicknamed him "Spacy Tracy" because no one knew what he was going to do from one moment to the next. After shooting his girlfriend and learning that the man with her was not a new boyfriend, Peters apologized and drove the pair to get help.

"You could tell back then that things were ... not going to end well unless he changed," Carlisle said last night.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.