Tony Sylvester is a technician at the Mauna Kea station of the ‘Very Long Baseline-Array’, a network of 10 radio telescopes stretching from Hawaii to the US Virgin Islands. 

This is his Facebook account of an attack on the telescope allegedly carried out by James Coleman, a 30-year old haole from Kailua-Kona. 

Coleman is now in the custody of the Hawaii County Police Department.

Anti-telescope protesters claim they have no contact with Coleman.

Attacked and assaulted today just because we work at one of the telescopes on Mauna Kea. The suspect gained entry by ramming our gates then used his vehicle to ram our outer steel doors multiple times and proceed to beat on our inner doors so much that we had to barricade the doors with desks and chairs till the police arrived.

The suspect was so full of hate as he peered through the crack between the doors. What a horrible and terrifying experience. Tomorrow is a special event held at the Mauna Kea visitors center to celebrate the one year anniversary of the TMT protest. It is so sad to see what Hawaii has become.

Here is the vehicle used to break down our doors. Lucky, we were able to get out of the way before getting crushed by this action. We were terrorized for one and a half hours before help arrived. The suspect destroyed our communications box so we were trapped and lost contact with the police dispatch. Our vehicles were also damaged by the suspect."

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KE: Musings: Kooky

HTH: ‘I never felt so threatened’; Kailua-Kona man allegedly breaks into telescope after ramming truck into building

KITV: Kona man, 30, charged in Mauna Kea property damage incident

Best Comment: "The continuous lawlessness is a direct result of Governor Ige and his administration's willful failure to uphold law and order. It is long over due to go after the perpetrators and stop rubbing noses with these dangerous criminals. But then again, as long as the governor wrongfully aids and abets criminals the criminal activity will continue unabated as the recent past has shown."

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