Police today arrested a 39-year-old man who, while allegedly trying to elude officers seeking to arrest him on warrants, drove into the Kailua neighborhood where President Barack Obama is vacationing.

The man drove back out and was eventually arrested in Waimanalo, police said.

At no time did the vehicle enter the secured area at the president’s vacation compound on Kailuana Place, police said in a news release.

The activity was unrelated to the president’s visit, according to a White House press pool report quoting Edwin Donovan of Secret Service public affairs. Obama was golfing at the Klipper Golf Course on Marine Base Hawaii at the time of the incident, the pool report said.

The Honolulu Police Department issued a statement that police went to a Kailua home about 2:20 p.m. today to arrest the 39-year-old Kailua man, who was wanted on five outstanding warrants, including four for traffic violations and a bench warrant.

"Upon seeing the officers, the man fled in a vehicle," the statement said. "He drove past a residential checkpoint that was set up near the President’s vacation home, turned around and then drove back out. At no time did the vehicle enter the secured area."

The man apparently panicked at seeing the presidential security apparatus and bolted, said Honolulu Secret Service Special Agent-in-Charge Al Joaquin.
 
The driver drove on the H-3 freeway toward Honolulu and got onto Moanalua Freeway in the wrong direction, heading east in the westbound lanes, police said.

The driver then got back onto the H-3 heading toward Kaneohe and ended up on Waikupanaha Street in Waimanalo. The Secret Service was not involved.

The chase ended at Puuhonua O Waimanalo at the end of Waikupanaha Road, a village founded by Hawaiian activist Dennis “Bumpy” Kanahele’s Nation of Hawaii.

Kanahele said a man drove his truck past the front gate of the village, and that Kanahele and a nephew of his tried to convince the man to get out of his vehicle. The man had met his nephew once, Kanahele said.

“The guy came driving inside here, and of course the cops were chasing him,” Kanahele said. When the man refused to get out, HPD had the village gate closed, he said.

Police said the suspect refused officers’ command to get out of the vehicle, and that officer used a Taser to arrest him. He was taken into custody about 4 p.m. and taken to hospital for treatment of minor injuries, polcie said.

It wasn’t clear if the man was trying to seek refuge in the village, on land occupied by the Nation of Hawaii under a 55-year lease from the Department of Land and Natural Resources in 1993.

Many have tried to seek refuge from the law in the village, Kanahele said.

“Anybody in his right mind knows that if you’re doing something real bad, especially going through one blockade of the president, you’re going to get in trouble, I don’t care where you run,” Kanahele said. “If you’re screwing up with law, brah, and you’re coming inside here trying to hide from them, we’re not going to stand for those kinds of things.”