UH-Manoa security alert lifted after police detain ‘distraught’ man
STAR-ADVERTISER STAFF
UH public safety vehicles were posted outside Bachman Hall on the UH-Manoa campus, where officials were alerted this morning to a possible threat of an armed male.
STAR-ADVERTISER
McCarthy Mall at the University of Hawaii-Manoa campus on March 3. Honolulu police officers and University of Hawaii security personnel are patrolling the Manoa campus Thursday morning after receiving a report of a possible armed man.
The University of Hawaii at Manoa lifted a campus-wide alert early this afternoon after police detained a man who had been described as “distraught,” possibly armed and headed to UH.
The UH tweeted out at about 12:20 p.m. that the “person of interest was taken into custody.” Officials said the man was arrested in Kahala and was not on campus.
Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Yu confirmed that “the male taken into custody was the subject of the earlier missing persons’ bulletin who was reported as being distraught.” He has not been charged with any crime, 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 immediately began patrolling the Manoa campus.
UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said, “He had a connection to someone here at the University of Hawaii but he is not a student or an employee.
“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.
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Later in the morning, Honolulu police confirmed in a missing person bulletin that they were looking 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 be driving a 2000 black Mercedes-Benz. HPD did not say if he was armed or what triggered the missing person’s bulletin.
UH sent a second alert at 11:12 a.m., explaining that the first alert was a cautionary measure, and the threat is specific to one building, which they did not identify. “The person of interest is known to be armed, but the incident is isolated and Honolulu Police and UH Manoa DPS are actively working the situation,” UH said.
A university spokesman said no classes were canceled and there has been no evacuation of the campus.
St. Francis School, whose campus borders the UH-Manoa campus, also sent out a text alert to parents.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or *CRIME on cellular phone.
33 responses to “UH-Manoa security alert lifted after police detain ‘distraught’ man”
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Prayers with Manoa ????????
Yes, prayers but also please crack down on illegal guns. Save Hawaii from what too many mainland states suffer from: too many guns floating around.
possibly armed= illegal guns? Are you a student at UH?
Yeah, I got that alert via text but nothing since.
Ok, got the follow-up text. The UH alert system is sometimes annoying but it works pretty well. I would like to see this in public schools as well.
A distraught man driving a Mercedez-Benz from Hawaii Kai. What a scene!
Everyone get to your safe space.
Aren’t guns illegal on campus in Hawaii?
Yes, schools are gun free zones. For mentally/deranged and criminals, it does not matter. It is only a law.
But when I carry my guns my genitals double in sze
LOL
2×0= still nothing.
yikes! I plan to avert my eyes…
Brilliant. I guess you’d prefer that the dude was distraught, likely unstable and legally carrying a weapon on campus.
Very unsettling. Good idea to have HPD & Campus security patrolling campus. I hope it turns out to be nothing.
he may just turn around and go home no parking…
or start shooting cause there is no parking….. works both ways for distraught people.
Scary. My son is on campus today. I hope this doesn’t escalate.
Did Allie forget to take her meds again?
You must be new to this blog – those of us who have been on here a long time have figured out that Allie is a “he” and not a “she”. Additionally, he has been claiming to be a UH student since 2008 and that untruth was uncovered 2-3 months back….
Until the outing, I thought Allie was a she because he is always commenting “scary”
Nah, not new to the blog. Could it be that “Mr. Koo” IS “Allie”? 🙂
Catfish?
Ooh, it’s so much fun to doxx people. Let’s do you next, OK?
Lucky that person didn’t flirt with me. My face would be red or I ate too much Togarashi.
Is that a photo of the distraught man? S-A is such a professional newspaper. Put captions under your photos.
There is a caption under another copy of the photo, but we have to discover it.
Better to react with an abundance of caution. Too much crazy stuff goes on in this world.
Before hearing all details, glad that campus security and HPD acted promptly and nabbed him before he even reached campus. Prayer of thanks.
Few questions here directed to HPD. 1) Does the man in custody have a registered firearm? Distraught people with firearms is not a safe combination. 2)So, if it’s not a student or employee, could it be a vendor working out of UH? 3) If he does have a firearm, can HPD confiscate it? I mean, shouldn’t we be taking precautionary measure and err on the side of caution?
If he’s charged with a crime perhaps they can confiscate a legally registered weapon, an illegal firearm would be confiscated of course.
But I see only “possibly armed” and HPD has said basically nada. Don’t get your panties in a wad just yet, I see no evidence of any crime at this point.
Do we even know if the man is indeed distraught?
I don’t think there’s anything of a precautionary nature that can be done about someone who’s already shown up at the place he was going and in possession of whatever he was carrying.