Date Published:  Fri, 02/06/2015
Friday, February 6, 2015
By: Antonio Planas, O’Ryan Johnson, Lindsay Kalter, Owen Boss and Laurel J. Sweet

A “heavily armed” Coast Guardsman is being held without bail after police say he murdered one woman and shot another, torched a car and wounded a cop in an early morning ambush yesterday in Bourne on his birthday.

The rampage — which authorities said began with the attack on the two fellow members of the Coast Guard who served on Cape Cod — triggered bomb sweeps in two states.

A handcuffed Adrian T. Loya, 31, of Virginia pleaded not guilty to murder and seven other charges in Falmouth District Court yesterday and was ordered to undergo a mental evaluation. He is due back in court March 23.

His lawyer, J. Drew Segadelli, said his client — who has no criminal record — was stationed at Chesapeake Bay, Va., and “came in contact” with the female victims “at one point or another,” but this is not a case of “domestic violence.” He refused to elaborate and all court records were impounded.

Yesterday’s pre-dawn shootings were the first time Loya had been to the Bourne condo complex, Segadelli said.

A few neighbors in Virginia told the Herald last night they arrived home to see helicopters overhead and the bomb squad at Loya’s condo in Chesapeake. Those living nearby his condo were asked to evacuate.

“It’s crazy. Anything can happen, you just never know,” one mother said, adding the police sweep frightened her 7-year-old daughter.

Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe said cops responded to the condo complex on Round House Road in Bourne about 2:15 a.m. on a report of a car fire, heard gunshots and were then ducking whizzing bullets, one of which struck a local police officer — identified as Jared MacDonald. The officer was hit in the back under a bulletproof vest, authorities said. He is expected to recover.

Additional officers responded to a residence in the complex and found the unidentified female victims. The injured woman’s condition was not available.

“They’re great girls,” said Paula Dunn, 68, a neighbor at the Sea Watch condominiums. “They’re sweethearts.”

O’Keefe said Loya was ready for a gunfight.

“There were three long rifles as well as a handgun that he was heavily armed with,” O’Keefe said, adding he invaded the women’s condo.

Bourne police Chief Dennis Woodside said he wouldn’t speculate on how many rounds Loya fired and declined to say if police returned fire. He said Loya was taken down at gunpoint outside the complex, as the wounded officer, who couldn’t be reached for about 15 minutes, was rushed to safety.

“Two officers grabbed our officer and carried him through the woods, through the snow, out to where we could get him to an ambulance,” noting the burning car had blocked a direct path to medical personnel, Woodside said.

First-responders were also slowed by what looked like “a two liter soda bottle with items inside and it was wrapped in wires.” The discovery brought in the state police bomb squad.

A desk clerk at the Quality Inn in Bourne, where Loya stayed, said he “seemed like a nice guy” who chatted about the weather and traffic before holing up in his first-floor hotel room.