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Honolulu police took a man into custody Thursday after he barricaded himself for five hours in an apartment at a residential building in Waikiki.
The barricade occurred at the Royal Aloha condominium building, 1909 Ala Wai Boulevard.
Officers responded to a call of a distraught, armed male at an apartment shortly after 7:30 a.m., according to police spokeswoman Michelle Yu.
Police did not disclose what the man was armed with.
Officers shut down a section of McCully Street at the intersection with Ala Wai Boulevard for about three hours while negotiators from the Specialized Services Division spoke with the man from a balcony of an adjacent unit.
The commotion caught the attention of area residents.
Joe Baldassare, who resides at the Waikiki Landmark condominium building with partner Bill Bartek, said he saw through their apartment window four to six police cars converge at the entrance of Royal Aloha at about 8:15 a.m. “And then more and more and more just kept coming,” Baldassare said.
Later, he left his apartment to walk his dog when he observed multiple police vehicles on the block, two police command trucks in front of the Royal Aloha as well as three canine units and “a whole bunch of guys in SWAT gear and long guns” enter the building.
Baldassare said he saw the man screaming at the officers standing in the balcony. “But I couldn’t tell what he was saying,” he said.
At about 12:25 p.m. officers released a stun grenade, or a “flashbang,” into the apartment. The explosive sound and blinding flash of light from the device startled passerbys below near the Ala Wai Canal.
Smoke from the flashbang billowed from the unit’s window, and police took the man into custody shortly afterward.
There were no injuries reported.
The shirtless man, wearing a face mask, was seen in handcuffs exiting the building with police shortly before 12:50 p.m.
Officers took him to a medical facility for an evaluation, according to Yu.
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