The University of Hawaii at Manoa campus was placed on high alert status and two elementary schools were on lockdown for several hours Friday as Honolulu police and UH campus security searched for a student who they believed may have been distraught and armed with a handgun.
The man was located by police in the Diamond Head area at about 3 p.m., a police spokeswoman said. He was taken into custody but not arrested, and then sent to a hospital for observation, the spokeswoman said. No weapon was found, she said.
Just before 3 p.m., UH-Manoa officials sent out an all-clear bulletin that also offered a number to call for crisis counseling: 956-7927.
The man’s girlfriend called the university about 11:45 a.m., warning that the man had a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun, in his backpack, UH-Manoa spokesman Gregg Takayama said.
The woman, also a student, told UH officials that she and the man had argued at Jefferson Hall on the East-West Center section of the campus, said UH campus security chief Wayne Ogino. He then ran toward the back of the building and along the Manoa stream side leading to the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies across Dole Street, Ogino said.
At 12:05 p.m. university officials issued the campuswide alert describing him as an Asian male about 5 feet 7 inches tall, wearing a black and blue long-sleeved shirt, dark shorts and a baseball cap, and carrying a blue backpack.
The alert said he was "distraught" and was "possibly armed."
The girlfriend told UH officials that she was more concerned he was suicidal than a danger to others, Ogino said.
At 12:30 p.m. authorities searched the parking structure and the taro patch near the Hawaiian Studies building and other buildings on the UH-Manoa campus.
Organizers of an indigenous peoples conference at Kamakakuokalani moved their gathering indoors as a safety precaution. The complex was largely empty because there are no Hawaiian studies classes on Fridays.
Nearby Hokulani and Hanahauoli schools placed their campuses on lockdown for about two hours.
