Heavily armed members of the police SWAT team, police dogs and the police helicopter combed the ridges above a quiet Kalihi Valley neighborhood yesterday looking for the suspects.

From the helicopter, police spotted a young man lying down along the mountainside above Laulani Street in Kalihi at about 2 p.m. They brought him down and questioned him, but did not arrest him.

Shortly after noon yesterday, police were called to 2835 Kamanaiki St., a few blocks Ewa of Laulani Street, where two men armed with knives held two women, ages 37 and 45, and a 30-year-old man captive, police said. A third man remained outside, talking to people in the house, said police Maj. Frank Fujii.

The residents “;were captured in the house for a brief period of time,”; Fujii said.

One of the suspects threatened the victims with a knife, then stabbed the man in the leg and took some of his personal items, police said.

The three men fled before police arrived.

Later, a man came to the door when a Star-Bulletin reporter knocked, but refused to discuss what occurred. The man apparently had fresh bruises on his face and was limping. He came out of the home and was pacing in front of it.

Police continued to search for the two men, both described as between 30 and 40 years of age, both about 5 feet 6 to 5 feet 8 inches tall, and both wearing light-colored T-shirts. One suspect was described as having salt-and-pepper-colored hair and weighing about 140 to 160 pounds.

It is uncertain what role, if any, the man found in the mountains played in the incident. Officers detained and questioned him at the top of Laulani Street, but witnesses brought to the location could not identify him.

A resident of Kamanaiki Street, who asked not to be identified because he feared retaliation, said, “;I've been here for 25 years, and nothing like that has happened.”;

He said the residents at 2835 Kamanaiki St. moved in only a few months ago.

The suspects face arrest on suspicion of first-degree robbery, kidnapping, first-degree terroristic threatening and second-degree assault.

Fujii said the men could be in the mountains, but the helicopter search was suspended.

Residents on Laulani Street, located off Nihi Street, were alarmed by the heavy police presence in their usually quiet neighborhood.

Bernadette Cabico, 29, stood outside her house with her 1- and 3-year-old children as heavily armed SWAT team officers and their dogs passed her house and searched along with the helicopter.

“;It's really scary,”; she said after learning of the home invasion and the suspects who remained at large.