SANTA CRUZ -- Belinda Farrell was in a trance when the bullets started flying.

A teacher of Hawaiian healing arts, the Santa Cruz resident was home with two Japanese clients when Jeremy Peter Goulet gunned down Santa Cruz police detective Sgt. Loran "Butch" Baker and detective Elizabeth Butler.

The suspect hopped a fence, whipped by her front door and died moments later in a hail of bullets.

"We just heard rounds of bullets, loud, right outside the window. And first you think firecrackers. Then we just went down," Farrell said. "We didn't know what was going on, we just heard loud bullets and guns."

Farrell lives on the 100 block of Doyle Street, a strip of apartments that abuts the property where the two officers were gunned down. Goulet, a 35-year-old military veteran and recent Santa Cruz transplant, was killed in a gunfire exchange in her driveway.

"After the rounds of bullets I came outside, which was probably not the smartest thing to do, and got up to see, because I saw a lot of activity there. And then the officer said 'Get back in the house, immediately,' " Farrell said.

One of Farrell's neighbors was covered up by Santa Cruz firefighters, who dove on top of her when the gunfire erupted.

Statues of Quan Yin -- the Buddhist goddess of compassion -- stand sentry over Farrell's small yard, with one bullet hole through the fence between the deities, and another in the side of Farrell's house.

"Thank God

"I made dinner for [my clients]. We made the best of it, felt grateful that we had a roof on our heads. I felt protected."

The bullets that ripped through Farrell's yard were likely from the shooting of the two detectives, both of whom leave families behind.

"My heart goes out to them. I feel so badly," Farrell said. "To know that we heard those bullets, because those were deafening."

Follow Sentinel reporter Jason Hoppin on Twitter at Twitter.com/scnewsdude