A suspicious item left in front of a Waikiki jewelry store prompted police to close Kalakaua Avenue for two hours Friday afternoon and evacuate part of Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, the second bomb scare in Honolulu in as many days.
Although the bomb squad deemed the backpack harmless, officers arrested and charged Trenton Christenson, 28, with second-degree terroristic threatening, a misdemeanor.
The incident came a day after a bomb threat and "suspicious package" closed Circuit Court and other government buildings on Punchbowl and Halekauwila streets for several hours. That package also was deemed harmless, but police have opened a first-degree terroristic threatening case in the scare.
"We’re treating everything like it’s real, because we don’t know," police Capt. Ryan Borges said, referring to last week’s Boston Marathon bombing.
In Waikiki an unattended backpack was reported at about 2 p.m. in front of the Cartier store on Kalakaua, Borges said. Police called the bomb squad and shut down Kalakaua before 3 p.m., creating a traffic nightmare just as the afternoon rush hour was about to begin.
Police X-rayed the backpack; an explosive specialist in a protective suit from HPD’s Specialized Services Division looked inside and found nothing dangerous.
"Basically a bunch of junk inside," Borges said. "Circumstances indicated it might have been an explosive device because of the way the person was acting."
Borges said witnesses said it appeared the bag was left there intentionally. "It wasn’t a mistake. He actually intended to scare people," he said.
The road closure created an instant mess as vehicles heading into the Ewa end of Waikiki stopped, backing up traffic throughout the surrounding area. Motorists were told to avoid Kalakaua from Lewers Street to Royal Hawaiian Avenue.
Regarding the downtown bomb scare, police said the suspicious package had been inadvertently left by a worker near Circuit Court and was not related to a telephone threat to 911.
