A downtown attorney who witnessed the fatal bludgeoning of a 58-year-old security guard May 3 at Fort Street Mall testified this week that the attacker “took a full swing” at the side of the victim’s head and face with a metal water bottle.

“He reached back and swung it … and the security guard went down,” said Greg Takase, who works for Island Insurance, whose office is located near the scene of the attack.

Takase was among several witnesses who testified during a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Honolulu District Court for Razi White, 30, who is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Michael Stubbs. The security post commander at Pioneer Plaza was hospitalized in critical condition and died May 12.

Takase said he was 10 to 15 yards away from the two men and could not hear their conversation, but that based on their gestures, Stubbs appeared to be asking the other man, whom he identified as White, to leave the premises. Takase said White’s body language suggested he was listening, but then he suddenly attacked.

“He caught him off guard,” Takase said, adding White used his left hand to strike the right side of the guard’s head with the water bottle. “He fell straight down. … He crumpled forward,” he said.

Takase testified he chased the assailant but lost him at a traffic light when White ran into evening rush-hour traffic. Takase said the fleeing man twice turned around to look at him.

The defendant was in attendance at the hearing via a telephone videoconferencing call from the Oahu Community Correctional Center.

Joe Eneliko, a greeter at Walmart on Fort Street Mall, testified that White is a known shoplifter and had been given a trespass warning. Eneliko said the defendant’s photo was posted inside the store and that White frequented the area. He also said he had even talked to White the day of the attack.

Eneliko said he recognized White as the man who ran past him around the time of the attack, heading toward McDonald’s, with his sunglasses falling down.

Forensic pathologist Yoshiyuki Kikuchi of the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office testified that Stubbs’ fatal injuries were due to blunt-force head trauma, including a skull fracture and bleeding in his brain.

The state will continue presenting evidence against White when the preliminary hearing resumes Thursday before Judge Tracy Fukui.