Man arrested after prompting lockdown at army base in Hawaii

A man who was on the run after a scuffle with a soldier at a US Army base in Hawaii, prompting an hourslong lockdown and search, has been arrested, authorities said late Thursday.

Paul A Smith, 27, was taken into police custody on the island of Molokai on Thursday evening, said Alana Pico, a spokesperson for the Maui Police Department. The police did not say whether he was armed when the arrest took place.

Earlier, Mike Donnelly, a spokesperson for the US Army Garrison Hawaii, said an armed man dressed in civilian clothing was confronted by a soldier about 2:30 pm at the Schofield Barracks on the island of Oahu. Authorities later identified him as Smith and said they believed he was armed with a handgun.

After unconfirmed reports that shots had been fired on the base, a shelter-in-place order was issued, and schools enacted active-shooter lockdown procedures, authorities said.

After an extensive search, the lockdown order was rescinded, the US Army Garrison Hawaii said in a statement on Facebook at 4:50 pm, adding that the reports of shots had never been confirmed and that “there is no longer an assessed threat on the installation.”

The search for the man took law enforcement officials both on and off the base, and to another island. Hours later, police arrested Smith “without incident” about 8 pm, Pico said.

The US Army Garrison Hawaii described him as a 5-foot-10, light-skinned man in his 20s or 30s wearing a button-down aloha shirt and jeans with Nike sneakers. He had a mohawk-style haircut and was carrying a camouflage cross-body bag, it added. Before his arrest, he had last been seen near the base’s commissary at 3:20 pm, Donnelly said. Authorities also said he was driving a white sedan.

Schofield Barracks was returning to normal operations Thursday evening, the US Army Garrison Hawaii said, adding that an investigation about the man was ongoing.