Police Vehicle Totaled After Being Struck by Fleeing Tacoma Truck Driver

Teran Pacheco-Fernandez

Police are asking the public’s help in locating a 24-year-old woman wanted in connection to a crash involving an officer’s vehicle, officials stated late Friday afternoon.

Teran Pacheco-Fernandez has outstanding warrants for her arrest. Hawai‘i County Police are also asking the public to keep their eyes open for a Toyota Tacoma as the vehicle was used to hit the police cruiser.

The search for Pacheco-Fernandez and the truck stem from incidents that started on Nov. 14 in the Kaumana area. According to police, an officer saw a white truck with no hood and blacked out windows on Kaumana Drive in Hilo. The officer went to investigate and the driver of the truck immediately backed into the officer’s vehicle, pulled forward and then backed into the officer’s vehicle a second time before fleeing the area.

The license plate seen was HZK-649.

“The Officer’s vehicle was completely damaged from the incident and the officer was out of the vehicle at the time,” officials say.

Officers had a second encounter with the truck and its driver on Nov. 15 at about 11:20 a.m. They found the same truck, now painted black, in the parking lot of the Puainako Shopping Center.

When police approached, the truck fled the area heading south on Highway 11 toward Kea‘au driving recklessly.

“Police are warning the public about this truck as the operator is not concerned for the safety of the public and is willing to take any risks in fleeing from law enforcement,” officials say.

Anyone with information about the truck or Pacheco-Fernandez is asked to call Officer Cacique Melendez of Hilo Patrol at 808-935-3311. Anonymous tipsters can call Crime Stoppers at 808-961-8300.