After entering a government building and allegedly threatening officials with a pistol, a longshot Democratic candidate for Congress in Hawaii was taken into custody.
Around 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Kirill Basin, 40, a candidate for Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District, allegedly threatened two Maui County employees before running away and being taken into custody a few hours later.
It’s unclear why Basin allegedly broke into the government building or who he threatened, but according to police, it came after the congressional candidate displayed a number of strange behaviors.
Basin was escorted from a South Maui town hall meeting two days prior to his arrest after he allegedly got into a heated dispute with Councilmember Tom Cook and his staff.
Jared Agtunong, Cook’s executive assistant, said that police had to step in after Basin confronted Agtunong in the parking lot following his removal from the town hall.
According to Honolulu Civil Beat, Agtunong said in a petition for a restraining order against Basin that he had also received a number of obscene and cryptic texts in the days leading up to the fight.
Agtunong claimed in the restraining order filing that he received texts “telling me that I’m a piece of trash” and “I should think of my family” when he refused to return Basin’s call.
He claimed that Basin kept messaging him for hours, “wishing me luck with prison” and telling him, “You’re f***ed.”
After entering a government building and allegedly threatening officials with a pistol, Kirill Basin, 40, a longshot Democratic candidate for Congress in Hawaii, was taken into custody.
Basin and Maui County Councilmember Tom Cook allegedly got into a heated disagreement a few days before to his arrest, and Cook’s assistant Jared Agtunong (seen together) filed a restraining order against Basin.
About two hours after Basin was taken into custody for allegedly threatening government employees, Agtunong’s restraining order was issued on Friday at 3 p.m.
Within two hours of Agtunong’s request being submitted in court, a judge granted a temporary restraining order.
Basin was also detained on May 2 for disorderly conduct, according to court documents that the Honolulu Civil Beat published.
Basin said he was unlawfully arrested and filed a lawsuit against Maui County and Maui Police Chief John Pelletier on Thursday.
He claimed that throughout his incarceration, authorities “prolonged and deliberate infliction of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse.”
According to court documents, Basin filed the case on his own behalf and without legal representation. He announced his move against officials on his campaign’s Instagram account.
I served this lawsuit today. In the Instagram post, Basin wrote, “It basically describes how three police officers tortured me for fourteen hours.”
That’s the main idea. Nobody will ever experience that again.
Basin, 40, is running for the 2nd Congressional District of Hawaii.
After being detained on May 2 for disorderly conduct, Basin filed a complaint alleging that the police had “tortured” him while he was in jail.
“The Maui Police Department will not compromise public safety, and incidents of this nature are taken extremely seriously in Maui County,” Pelletier said in a statement following Basin’s arrest on Friday for allegedly threatening officials with a gun. “I am extremely proud of the quick response and professionalism displayed by our personnel, which helped ensure a peaceful resolution.”
According to Hawaii News Now, Basin was taken into custody for first-degree terroristic threats, and police stated that other charges are pending review.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Maui Police Department for a reaction to Basin’s lawsuit, as well as Cook and Agtunong for comment on the alleged confrontation.
