Maui police arrested six people Wednesday after they allegedly tried to block trucks hauling equipment for the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope project at Haleakala.
Four men and two women ranging in age from 18 to 51 were taken into custody at about 3:45 a.m. after they tried to block the convoy and did not heed repeated requests to move, according to police.
Dan Dennison, spokesman for the Department of Land and Natural Resources, said the arrests happened at a roadblock at the intersection of Haleakala and Old Haleakala highways.
All six were released, given court dates and face charges including disorderly conduct, obstructing a highway, failing to obey a police officer and resisting arrest, police said.
One of the six was taken by ambulance to an emergency room before being booked.
An unidentified member of Kako‘o Haleakala, a group that organized the protest, said via Facebook Messenger that the injured man was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center for a concussion and shoulder injuries. He was released from the hospital Wednesday morning.
The group member alleged an officer had his knee on the man’s head and that the injured man was yelling for help and in pain and “became unconscious and unresponsive.”
According to the organization, Kako‘o Haleakala called an ambulance while police “just stood there and did not assist.”
A Maui police spokesman said his agency wasn’t aware of the protesters’ allegations but would look into them.
Video from the protest showed the injured man, who people in the crowd said was handcuffed, was being tended to by protesters and police.
Park officials had announced Crater Road and the park’s summit road were to be closed from 10 p.m. Tuesday to 2 p.m. Wednesday for the scheduled delivery of a 4-meter mirror to the Haleakala summit.
Beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, more than 100 demonstrators converged at the intersection of Haleakala and Old Haleakala highways. By midnight, Dennison said, approximately 60 people were at the site.
During the protest, about a dozen people formed a human chain with sections of plastic pipe covering their joined hands and lay down across the roadway. Police officers “gently lifted” the protesters to the shoulder of the highway, Dennison said.
As the convoy approached, however, other protesters darted into the roadway and blocked the convoy for about seven minutes until police carried them away, according to video from the scene.
More than 60 law enforcement officers from the Maui Police Department, the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement and National Park Service were present.
Before the vehicles arrived, a half-dozen police vehicles led the convoy of four wide-load tractor-trailer rigs. Dennison said the convoy reached the Haleakala summit between 7:30 and 7:45 a.m.
Construction on the $340 million solar telescope — expected to be the world’s most powerful solar telescope — began in 2012. Work is slated to be completed in 2019.
In July 2015, police arrested 20 protesters on Maui as they attempted to block a shipment of telescope parts for the project.
MauiNow.com reporter Wendy Osher contributed to this report.