Kona hospital locked down after threat

Administrators restricted access to Kona Community Hospital Wednesday morning after receiving a threat.

Police arrested, then later released, a Kailua-Kona man who allegedly called in threats to the hospital, Kona Patrol Capt. Richard Sherlock said.

“It apparently started last night,” Sherlock said Wednesday afternoon. “We can’t classify them all as threats.”

The man was arrested on suspicion of causing alarm at the hospital, Sherlock said. The investigation is ongoing, which is what led police to release the man after having him in custody for about an hour.

Hospital officials contacted police after getting a report that a man “had made phone calls threatening to ‘shoot up’ the hospital,” police said. The call came in just before 9:30 a.m.

CEO Jay Kreuzer, who was in Honolulu Wednesday morning, said the restriction was lifted just before noon.

“Everything is back to normal now,” he said.

Initial reports that someone was in the hospital threatening to shoot staff were untrue, he said.

At about 10 a.m., two patrol officers were seen in the hospital’s administrative offices. Kreuzer said police investigated the threat.

Police did not block Haukapila Street or the hospital’s parking lots, and hospital staff admitted some patients to the hospital while controlling access to the building.

Administrative staff threatened a West Hawaii Today reporter and photographer with arrest if they did not immediately leave a publicly accessible area outside the hospital.