Kaimuki standoff ends in man's arrest
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Police arrested a man yesterday who threatened to set a home ablaze after a two-hour standoff in Kaimuki.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
The man had been evicted last week from the house at 1112 Second Ave.
Second Avenue was closed yesterday afternoon when a man threatened to set his former residence on fire.
Neighbors called police when he returned to the empty home yesterday.
Detective Gary Lahens said the man, who was in his 30s, was talking to himself and yelling when police arrived.
He also had two dogs, both of which appeared to be mongrel pit bulls.
When officers approached the man, he poured a flammable liquid onto the floor of the house and threatened to ignite it with the grill starter. Police called in the SWAT team, hostage negotiators and the Fire Department.
The negotiators talked the man out of the house without incident. He was arrested on charges of burglary.
Lt. Charles Wong said the man had been arrested for creating a disturbance at the same location previously, and had assaulted two officers.
Neighbors said the man appeared to have mental problems. He often wandered the streets, talking to himself and yelling.
"When I'm with my kids, I don't even walk near that place," said Renee Ige, who lives nearby.
Ige said the man had been taken away by ambulance on several earlier occasions, but was usually back later the same day, returning by bus.
He had lived in the house with two other people before the eviction.
"They must have just left without him," she said.
The dogs were taken by the Humane Society.
