A man who claimed to be an FBI agent and threatened to kill a bus driver at Waimea Canyon School Thursday morning was arrested on charges of harassment and trespassing. According to Vice Principal Gary Kitabayashi, a man he had
A man who claimed to be an FBI agent and threatened to kill a bus driver at Waimea Canyon School Thursday morning was arrested on charges of harassment and trespassing.
According to Vice Principal Gary Kitabayashi, a man he had never seen before walked through the school’s front office, asking to meet with Principal Scott Topp.
Kitabayashi said the man was described as a homeless white male, about 5-foot 8-inches tall, with a slender build, unshaven and wearing a white dress shirt and black trousers. His name was not released by police. He was arrested and booked, but released on his own recognizance. A court date was not known by press time.
“We have a protocol as to how we have visitors enter the school,” Kitabayashi said.
Department of Education State Security spokesperson Richard Soo pointed to a recent Mainland news story in which a school campus did not have security personnel, and a person walked into a cafeteria and the principal was shot and killed.
The DOE’s safety manager program employs about 33 retired police officers statewide in schools since 2000.
“Nationwide it’s become prevalent to take some pressure off the principals, who should be more focused on curriculum,” Soo said.
He wanted to see the principal Scott Topp, but he wasn’t on campus Thursday.
“Our school security manager (Todd Lundquist) and I were very close to the office. He started entering back into the office and by the time we got in there, he was sitting down calmly.
“He told me he was the FBI and was to arrest the bus driver for killing someone,” Kitabayashi said.
The Maui Intermediate Band was visiting Thursday to perform for the school, and two bus drivers were waiting.
“I asked for credentials and he took out his wallet and pulled out his drivers license. I told him that was unacceptable for what he wanted and asked him to leave.”
He started walking away, but “the school safety manager was escorting him, then he started hearing him mumble that he was going to kill people,” Kitabayashi said. That was when Lundquist gestured to office staff to call 9-1-1, Kitabayashi said.
Lundquist escorted the man through the parking lot and off campus. They were about 100 yards away, Kitabayashi said, when responding KPD officers Lionel Gonsalves and Paris Resinto of the Waimea Substation, confronted and arrested him.
There was a struggle, Kitabayashi said. Though, rumors that the suspect reached for or pulled out one of the officers’ pistols were false, according to county public information officer Cyndi Ozaki.
Staff Writer Kendyce Manguchei can be reached at mailto:kmanguchei@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 252).
