SOUTH KOHALA — Police identified a man taken into custody after a midday Monday incident at the corner of Daniel K. Inouye Highway (Saddle Road) and Highway 190 in West Hawaii as 30-year-old Jason Mattos of Keaau. ADVERTISING SOUTH KOHALA
SOUTH KOHALA — Police identified a man taken into custody after a midday Monday incident at the corner of Daniel K. Inouye Highway (Saddle Road) and Highway 190 in West Hawaii as 30-year-old Jason Mattos of Keaau.
Mattos, whom police say was driving a gray Ford F-350 pickup truck, had allegedly stopped at the intersection and didn’t make a turn at the T-type junction.
“It was stopped at the bottom of (Saddle Road) at that stop sign,” said Hawaii Police Department Maj. Sam Thomas. “A vehicle was waiting behind it and waiting for it to go right or left, and it never moved. So that party went to go check what was the issue, and he supposedly saw the driver with a firearm on his lap. And upon seeing this, he told a second (driver) what he saw, and they both just got back into their vehicles and went around (the truck) and left the area.
“… The second guy’s the one that called the police.”
The report was made at about 11:45 a.m., police said.
Thomas said the first officers on scene “set up a perimeter and then awaited additional officers because (Mattos) wasn’t responding.”
According to Thomas, officers reported that at one point Mattos got out of his truck and “started chanting and playing a ukulele.”
“And he was then taken into custody,” Thomas said. The police response included the Special Response Team — the department’s SWAT unit — and a hostage negotiator, according to Thomas.
Mattos was taken to South Kohala police station in Waimea where he was booked on suspicion of disorderly conduct, police said. Investigation into the incident is continuing.
The incident, which was made public at 12:40 p.m., closed the intersection for more than two hours, forcing West Hawaii drivers to find alternate routes.
Thomas said no firearm had been recovered as of about 3:50 p.m. The pickup truck was taken into evidence and towed to the South Kohala station. Kona Criminal Investigation Section detectives started the process of obtaining a search warrant for the truck, he said.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com or Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
