Officials find man accused of posting state Capitol mass shooting comment
HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - The man who allegedly left a comment online about a mass shooting at the state Capitol is not a threat, officials said Tuesday.
The comment was made during a livestream of Gov. David Ige’s press conference Friday on Hawaii News Now’s Facebook page. Ige, state Attorney General Clare Connors and other state officials were discussing threats that were made after the state dismantled an unpermitted structure on Mauna Kea.
The FBI was first made aware of the comment on Friday night.
“There was a Facebook post that mentioned that there’s going to be a mass shooting at the State Capitol this weekend, and referenced ‘Is anybody with me?,’ something to that effect," said FBI Special Agent Jason White.
The post itself said: “Mass shooting in the hawaii state Capitol this weekend who’s coming?"
The comment has been deleted -- but not before law enforcement took notice. The FBI issued a bulletin to other law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for whomever may have posted it.
The state Attorney General’s office said officers located the man in Arizona.
It was later determined that his Facebook comment during the state’s press conference on Mauna Kea was not credible.
The Attorney General’s office, however, said it’s still looking into the case.
The post was one of dozens of comments that were made as Gov. Ige, Connors and others condemned threats that erupted after the state dismantled the small wooden building at the base of Mauna Kea. That’s when a state official cut through a Hawaiian flag and inflamed tensions.
“These are disturbing,” said Connors at the Friday press conference. “These are the types of threats, these are the types of attacks that state employees are receiving, and we ask all, on all sides of this, to condemn that kind of action.”
Leaders of the Mauna Kea movement, who call themselves protectors of the mountain against the construction of the controversial Thirty Meter Telescope, have said in their official website that they have been preaching non-violent peaceful protests, and that their language focuses on the harm they say they’ve received at the hands of law enforcement.
Hawaii’s capitol building was designed more than 50 years ago to make it easy for the public to visit their lawmakers, something that today is considered to be a safety liability.
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