A homemade device resembling a pipe bomb at a Volcano house where a 58-year-old alleged squatter held off police for about 24 hours last week wasn’t what it appeared to be, police said Friday morning.
“We completed the search of the residence (Friday) morning, and we had bomb technicians there (Thursday) night determine that the device believed to be an explosive device was not,” Capt. Rio Amon-Wilkins of the Hawaii Police Department’s East Hawaii Criminal Investigation Division told the Tribune-Herald.
The device previously had been described as a possible pipe bomb.
After a standoff that started Wednesday at the purportedly unoccupied home on the 11-3000 block of Nahelenani Street, police on Thursday arrested Shawn Edward Page, who police say has no permanent address.
Page fired numerous shots at police, with one officer firing back, according to Chief Benjamin Moszkowicz. No one was hit by gunfire, although one officer was cut by broken glass and needed stitches.
Page has been charged with three counts each of attempted first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a separate felony, plus single counts of first-degree terroristic threatening, first-degree criminal trespassing and third-degree criminal property damage.
He is being held without bail pending his initial court appearance scheduled for Monday afternoon in Hilo District court.
The most serious charge, attempted first-degree murder, carries a mandatory penalty of life imprisonment without parole, upon conviction. The charges of attempted first-degree murder were filed because the victims are on-duty law enforcement officers.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com