‘Distraught’ man who sets off UH alert is taken into custody

The University of Hawaii at Manoa was on high alert for several hours Thursday as police and security crews searched for a man who was described as “distraught,” possibly armed and headed to the campus.

A campuswide alert was sent shortly after 9 a.m. and lifted in the early afternoon after police said the “person of interest was taken into custody.” Officials said the man was detained in Kahala and was not on campus.

Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Yu confirmed that “the male taken into custody was the subject of an earlier missing-persons bulletin who was reported as being distraught.” He had not been charged with any crime Thursday, she said.

At 9:01 a.m. the university sent out an alert to faculty, staff and students saying the UH Department of Public Safety “received a report of an armed male possibly heading to UH Manoa campus. There is no evacuation at this time.” The alert said the man was driving a black Mercedes-Benz. Police and UH security personnel began patrolling the campus.

“He had a connection to someone here at the University of Hawaii, but he is not a student or an employee,” UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said.

“The initial implied threat did not come through university channels. We were notified by (HPD),” he said. “Out of an abundance of caution, the police responded, and we have to take our lead from law enforcement.”

Later in the morning Honolulu police issued a missing-person bulletin for a “distraught” 41-year-old Hawaii Kai man, who was last seen at about 8 a.m. in Hawaii Kai. Police said he may have been driving a 2000 black Mercedes-Benz. HPD did not say whether he was armed or what triggered the missing-person bulletin.

UH sent a follow-up campus alert at 11:12 a.m., explaining that the threat was specific to one building, which it did not identify.

A university spokesman said no classes were canceled.

St. Francis School, whose campus borders the UH-Manoa campus, also sent out a text alert to parents.