Aiea football coach arrested in assault on skateboarders

Aiea High School’s 20-year head football coach, Wendell Say, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of felony assault and terroristic threatening in an Oct. 9 incident that followed a confrontation with skateboarders on campus.

Police arrested the 55-year-old Say, 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.

A group of young men were skateboarding on the walkway roofs while the football coaches were in a meeting, Principal Michael Tokioka said a few days after the incident. The coaches went out and told them to leave, he said.

Police said the skateboarders were confrontational with the coaching staff, trying to pick a fight with one of the staffers.

They eventually left, but the staff allegedly called family, friends and former players to look for the skateboarders. They found them and a fight ensued near Aiea Bowl at the Aiea Shopping Center, 99-115 Aiea Heights Drive, police said.

Police arrested three men. Police charged them with third-degree assault that night. They are: Joshua Chung, 21, a former Aiea defensive back; Tanela Liilii, 21; and Ricky Liilii, 31, who was also charged with third-degree criminal property damage.

Kaikea Kimura, salesman at APB Skateshop, said two of his friends were beaten and kicked Oct. 9 by men, possibly football players, from two trucks.

He said a group of the skateboarders were at the 7-Eleven near the shopping center when one of them was punched and kicked.

Another friend "ran away and the truck followed him … like a mob gang," he said. "He made it to Aiea Bowl. He stopped running and tried to go up and up with one of the guys, but two other guys came from the side and punched him in the face" and kicked him while he was down.

Calls to the Department of Education, Tokioka and Say were not returned.