“It was really loud,” the Port Orchard man recalled Monday. “It sounded like a car accident.”

Moments later, Schroeder, 25, watched the Mazda strike a woman walking along the shoulder of the road, sending her flying.

The RX-7 driver briefly stopped, then took off.

“I was like, ‘What the hell,’” Schroeder said.

While others rushed to help the woman, Schroeder jumped in his truck and started following the car. Thanks in large part to Schroeder’s efforts, the driver, Paul Anthony Cisco, 40, was later arrested and charged with vehicular homicide.

Schroeder was working in the parking lot of Gig Harbor Transmission Service just before closing time Friday evening when Rebecca Wilkie-Moore walked past.

Schroeder recognized her because she frequently walked along Purdy Road near the shop.

Wilkie-Moore, 43, a mother of two and a longtime newspaper carrier for The News Tribune, died of her injuries.

Schroeder, meanwhile, tried to follow the Mazda and get its license plate number.

“He tried to outrun me and get away from me,” Schroeder said. “He was taking corners too fast and running stop signs.”

Schroeder continued to pursue the driver as he sped along side streets. Schroeder said he watched the car occasionally veer into oncoming lanes or into the ditch. When he got close enough to read the license plate, Schroeder called 911 on his cell phone and asked a dispatcher to write down the plate number.

“At one point in time I was talking to a dispatcher, two sheriffs and someone else,” Schroeder said.

Finally, the driver pulled into a housing development near Horseshoe Lake. Schroeder said something must have happened to the car because the driver stopped, got out and started running toward Schroeder’s truck.

“So I started backing up,” he said. “He was screaming a whole bunch of stuff.”

The driver took off running, and Schroeder followed in his truck as the man ducked in and out of some bushes.

At one point, Schroeder said, the man went into a small white house and, after several minutes, came back outside holding something at his side.

“He started coming, running after me with what he had in his hand,” said Schroeder, who was on the phone with deputies at the time.

A woman, apparently a resident of the area, also helped track the driver, who again jumped into the bushes.

A few minutes later, deputies showed up and Schroeder pointed out where the man was hiding. “It was pretty wild,” Schroeder said.

Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said that without Schroeder’s help, the driver might have gotten away.

“He managed to stay safe and ended up being a great witness,” Troyer said.

The victim’s son, Christian Wilkie-Moore, said he appreciated what Schroeder did.

“I just want to say thank you,” Wilkie-Moore said.

Schroeder said he didn’t think, he just acted.

“If I would have felt threatened, I wouldn’t have done what I did, but I wasn’t feeling threatened,” Schroeder said.

“He was definitely trying to get away. I wasn’t going to give up very easily.”

Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268