Aiea High School football coach Wendell Say, who was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of assault and terroristic threatening in an Oct. 9 incident, said today that he was nowhere near the scene of a scuffle at a 7-Eleven store in Aiea.
Police arrested Say, 55, who also serves as a counselor at Aiea, at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at the main station on suspicion of second-degree terroristic threatening and second-degree assault, and released him that afternoon pending investigation. He was not charged.
The case stems from a series of incidents starting with an argument with skateboarders at Aiea High School on Oct. 9 and ended up with alleged assaults of two of the skateboarders at two nearby locations, according to various accounts.
Police said Say got into an argument with a 35-year-old man at 6:15 p.m. Oct. 9, threatened him with bodily harm and assaulted him. According to reports, the man was skateboarding at Aiea High School.
Say released a statement today saying he went to the police station on Tuesday after police asked him to appear there.
“When I got to the station, I was surprised because I was immediately booked and placed under arrest,” Say said in a written statement. “The detective told me that someone claimed he had been assaulted at the 7-Eleven store in Aiea on October 9, 2011, and that the individual identified me as the one who assaulted him. The detective showed me a group picture of Aiea High School football coaches, and said that the victim identified me from the picture.”
“I explained to the detective that I was never at the 7-Eleven store on October 9, 2011,” Say said.
Say said he has a receipt indicating he made a purchase at Sam’s Club at Pearl Highlands Center at 5:33 p.m. He and his wife and daughter then returned to their home in Wahiawa, he said.
“I am sorry that a young man in our community apparently has been injured, but I had absolutely nothing to do with it,” he said.