The U.S. Army says the shooter from Santa Cruz, Calif. who killed two police detectives on Tuesday used to be stationed in Hawaii.

Jeremy Goulet, 35, served in the Army from January 2004 to February 2007, according to military officials.

He came to Hawaii in April 2006 and was stationed at Wheeler Army Airfield.

Attorney Don Wilkerson says he represented Goulet when he faced sex assault charges here in the islands.

"I actually thought he was going to get back on track and do what you're supposed to do in life," said Wilkerson.

The sex assault charges were eventually dropped.

The detectives were shot to death Tuesday soon after arriving at Goulet's home in plain clothes to question him about a misdemeanor sex accusation, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak said.

The killings kicked off a half-hour neighborhood search by police that ended in a barrage of gunfire that took the life of Goulet, a disturbed former soldier who blamed everyone but himself for his escalating problems.

"He had contempt for the cops and hated our justice system, and had been in jail before and swore he'd never go back," his father Ronald Goulet, 64, said in halted, emotional bursts during an interview with The Associated Press.

Wowak said that after shooting the two detectives, Goulet took their guns and jumped into Baker's car. But the neighborhood was boxed in by hundreds of quickly responding law enforcement officers, so he ditched the car and tried to run.