GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Members of the Honolulu Fire Department hazardous materials detail decontaminated themselves last night during procedures to remove bags with unknown substances just outside of the Verizon Hawaii building on Bishop Street. A man was being held in connection with the incident.
Bomb scare
closes down roads
for 4 hoursA man is held after suspicious
packages are found at Verizon
Hawaii downtown
A man who was found with bomb-making materials in an Orlando, Fla., airport left suspicious packages inside the Verizon Hawaii building on Bishop Street yesterday, according to Honolulu police.
Police and fire officials closed roads in the downtown area for more than four hours last night before determining that the packages contained personal items and no bomb-making materials.
The man in his 40s, whom police did not identify but described as homeless, was "held under observance" last night, police said. Police would not say whether they plan to arrest the man.
Police said he had been identified in Orlando in mid-March, and authorities have kept track of him since.
Assistant Police Chief Boisse Correa declined to elaborate on the Orlando incident or whether the man was detained or arrested. However, he said the man flew to Arizona in mid-March and then took an airplane to Honolulu about a month ago.
"He has a history in several jurisdictions on the mainland of creating improvised explosive devices," he said.
Correa said the items seized in Orlando "could have been used to make explosives."
The police started shutting down roads about 5:30 p.m. after getting a report of the suspicious package. The Specialized Services Division was called to inspect the package, as well as the Honolulu Police Department's robot.
Police said they inspected two plastic 40- to 50-gallon black bags that were half filled with personal belongings.
Bishop Street at the intersection with Beretania Street was closed for four hours as police investigated.
Correa would not say whether the man had been followed since he arrived in Honolulu, but he did say, "Once he got to the building, we had to stop him at that point."
Correa said that because Verizon Hawaii is one of the islands' providers of essential services, they decided to detain him.
The police officers who entered the building and inspected the packages had to be decontaminated by Fire Department hazardous material crew, said fire Capt. Kenison Tejada.
During the decontamination process, police closed sections of Beretania and Alakea streets.
