Death threats against HI-EMA lasted weeks

There have been no new death threats this week against the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and its employees over the Jan. 13 bogus missile alert, but state officials want police to track down people who may have crossed the line in venting their frustrations in the aftermath.

Dozens of threats were posted online, faxed and phoned in after the alert triggered statewide panic.

Some of the threats — especially ones posted on social media — are easily traceable, said Lt. Col. Chuck Anthony, spokesman for Hawaii’s Department of Defense, which overseas HI-EMA.

Anthony said anyone who threatened HI-EMA or its employees needs to be prosecuted because “somebody who makes a very specific threat directed at an employee, even if they are just blowing off steam, something should be done to that individual to discourage that practice. It clearly had an impact on a lot of employees. I do know a lot of folks are very concerned for their own personal safety.”

Hawaii law includes several provisions — from harassment to misdemeanor and felony terroristic threatening — that could conceivably cover death threats. Threats made against a public servant also could elevate misdemeanor, second-degree terroristic threatening to felony, first-degree terroristic threatening punishable by up to five years in prison.

The false missile alert was sent by a HI-EMA warning officer who mistook a drill for an actual event. The so-called button pusher — who spoke only on the condition that he not be identified — told reporters Friday that he did not directly receive death threats, but heard about them thirdhand.

Anthony told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Tuesday that Honolulu police on Jan. 17 were given two separate reports of death threats — one compiled dozens of threats to HI-EMA and its employees; and the other was from HI-EMA employee Jeffrey Wong, who has the title of current operations officer and actually oversees the supervisor of the button pusher.

A photo of Wong was taken by The Associated Press inside HI-EMA’s Diamond Head emergency operations center in July, and after the alert it led to him being mistakenly identified as the person responsible for sending it.

“The Associated Press snapped his picture at the state warning point on July 17,” Anthony said. “This picture starts circulating throughout conspiracy websites saying, ‘Here’s the button pusher, the guy who did it.’ He was falsely ID’d as the button pusher among many, many conspiracy theorists online. The trolls and others had incredibly nasty things to say. … He was getting a tremendous amount of online harassment and Jeff went to the police by himself (on Jan. 17). He had had enough at that point.”

Wong told the Star-Advertiser on Tuesday that the dozen or so comments that were posted starting Jan. 13 were racist and “sickening.”

To online trolls, “I was the face of the organization,” Wong said. “They said, ‘He should be shot. He should be waterboarded. He should be deported. He’s a Chinese agent.’”

Wong, who is from Livermore, Calif., was not even on Oahu the day of the false alert and was attending a Civil Air Patrol meeting of senior staff members on the Garden Isle at the Courtyard Kauai at Coconut Beach by Marriott. Wong said he had already scoped out places to ride out a missile attack, tsunami or hurricane when the alert arrived on his work and personal cellphones.

Wong said he organized hundreds of confused hotel guests and Civil Air Patrol attendees to evacuate to the restaurant, the designated “point of shelter.”

“I stood up and said, ‘I’m with HI-EMA. My name’s Jeff Wong. We’re trying to confirm if it’s real,’” Wong said. “‘However, we need to take the appropriate steps to shelter until we can confirm this is real or not.’ People were scared. One lady asked if we were going to die. I said, ‘We’ll get through this together.’”

Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Yu said police have opened a first-degree terroristic threatening and harassment investigation based on Wong’s report.

Anthony told the Star- Advertiser that the death threats started Jan. 13 and continued until last week.

“The earlier ones were clearly death threats,” said Anthony, who repeatedly declined to be more precise. “They were pretty specific. There were threats of physical violence. There literally were dozens.”

There were two distinct targets of the threats, Anthony said.

“One was directed at Employee 1, the so-called button pusher, although not by name,” Anthony said. “The other type was just directed at Emergency Management Agency employees in general.”

Over time the nature of the threats softened but were still worrisome to HI-EMA officials.

“The specificity is not as direct, and the level of vitriol has subsided,” Anthony said. “Some of the (initial) threats were very specific about what this caller intended to do. (Later) a lot of them were just, ‘You guys stink. You’re all equally culpable. You’re all a bunch of Kokomo Clowns.’”

The agency was widely criticized for waiting four days before asking HPD to investigate the death threats.

Anthony said there was initial concern that a police report would result in additional threats.

“Nobody wanted to put their name to it (a police report) initially, because that would be made public record,” Anthony said. “Jeff Wong was being vilified online. He just happened to have his picture taken at the wrong place at the wrong time, and he’s getting death threats, incredibly awful comments directed at him online.”

For the Honolulu Star- Advertiser’s full coverage of Hawaii’s missile alert scare, go to 808ne.ws/Hawaii­missilescare.