Hawaiʻi Police Department
Criminal Investigations Section, Area I
Lieutenant Gregory Esteban
Phone: 961-2252
Report No. C1303322o
Media Release (update)
Hawaiʻi Island police have determined that a report of a gun threat Monday at a college campus in Hilo was unfounded.
The terroristic threatening case has been closed and the man who reported it, 25-year-old Louis H. Bartlow of Kalapana, has been charged with a crime.
On Monday morning, Bartlow, who claimed to be an employee of the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, reported that he had been accosted on campus by a man with a firearm.
Investigation by detectives from the Area I Criminal Investigations Section revealed that the incident did not occur and that Bartlow is not a university employee.
At 12:30 p.m. Thursday (December 12) police arrested Bartlow and charged him with false reporting to law enforcement authorities, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. His bail was set at $500. He is being held at the Hilo police cellblock pending his initial court appearance scheduled for Friday (December 13).