A 22-year-old man who allegedly pointed a ghost gun at a woman and her three kids after cutting them off on Farrington Highway near Ko Olina will remain in federal custody before trial, U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom A. Trader ordered Friday.

In a motion to detain Seth Zachary Owens, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael F. Albanese noted that Owens allegedly committed the federal offense of being a felon in possession of ammunition while on probation for an Oct. 28, 2021, conviction in state court on three counts of sexual assault in the third degree and two counts of sexual assault in the second degree.

Owens was sentenced to 18 months in prison and five years probation for assaulting a girl younger than 14 in 2019. Police said the victim reported on June 16, 2019, to a family member that Owens, an acquaintance of her older brother, had sexually assaulted her.

Albanese also marked the lines next to “Felony not otherwise a crime of violence involving the possession or use of a firearm, destructive device, or dangerous weapon,” “Danger to other person or community” and “serious risk defendant will flee.”

A preliminary hearing in Owens’ case is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. May 30 in Trader’s court.

At about 5:05 p.m. April 9, the woman, referred to in federal court documents as “Witness 1,” accompanied by her children, ages 13, 7, and 4, looked in her rearview mirror and saw a blue vehicle cut her off under the overpass near Ko Olina, according to an affidavit from a Homeland Security Investigations special agent.

Soon after the initial interaction, the woman and the car that cut her off met up again. The woman pulled in front of the blue car because her son, “Witness 2,” saw the driver point a gun toward them.

The two cars met up again on Pohakunui Street, and the woman allegedly saw the driver, who was wearing a red shirt and holding a black-and-silver handgun, “point a gun towards her and laugh.”

The woman called 911, and the blue car continued to follow her until Honolulu police responded and pulled over the blue car.

At about 5:10 p.m. an HPD sergeant was driving on Farrington Highway near Princess Kahanu Avenue and followed the blue car before pulling it over at Kaukama Road and Farrington Highway.

The sergeant saw four people in the car and watched as the driver switched seats with the person in the front passenger seat.

When the sergeant pulled Owens and the others out of the car, he saw a lone round of 9 mm ammunition on the driver’s seat of the car.

At 5:28 p.m. a field show-up was conducted with Owens and the other three passengers in the car pulled over by police.

The woman and her son were allegedly able to identify Owens as the man with the gun who was driving the blue car and pointed the weapon at them.

The blue car was towed to HPD’s Alapai Street headquarters where detectives executed a search warrant and recovered a black-and-green, privately manufactured “ghost gun” from the front passenger floorboard.

The gun had one black magazine loaded with 13 rounds of 9 mm ammunition. HPD investigators also recovered the round of 9 mm ammunition from the driver’s seat.