Kirill Basin was left sprawled on a Maui beach after a confrontation with beachgoers turned from shouted threats into a chair-swinging fight, a knockout and, police say, a knife scare.
The 40-year-old Democratic congressional candidate in Hawaii was arrested Saturday after the clash at Keawakapu Beach in South Kihei.
Maui police say the same confrontation that ended with Basin apparently unconscious also later involved him pulling a knife, threatening multiple people and throwing the weapon into the ocean.
Basin now faces two counts of first-degree terroristic threatening.
His bail was set at $1 million, and Fox News reported that a judge ordered him to have no contact with Kama Homan and four other people connected to the beach incident.
The confrontation started after a complaint over music.
Hawaii News Now reported that a 61-year-old man asked Basin to lower the volume at the beach.
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The Maui Police Department alleged Basin responded by implying he had a firearm and would shoot the man’s wife.
The video that followed has been viewed millions of times online and shows Basin shouting through a confrontation that people around him repeatedly tried to cool down.
One woman called Basin a “child,” drawing an angry response from the candidate.
“I’m a child. I’m 40 f**king years old,” he shot back.
The footage also appeared to capture Basin threatening the woman, including a remark about putting her “in the ground.”
He was later shown allegedly saying he would put her “in the hospital” and calling her a “bitch.”
At another point in the clip, Basin shouted toward the beachgoers about sending someone to the hospital.
“I told him if he wants to go to the hospital, come here!” he continued.
Someone nearby tried to end the argument, and Basin briefly appeared to agree before exploding again with profanities.
When a man pushed him to stop, Basin answered, “What are you gonna do?”
Homan told Hawaii News Now he was watching Basin get “more irate and violent” and thought he might need to intervene.
According to Homan, Basin then turned the threat toward him.
“I’m going to hurt you,” Homan recalled Basin saying.
The confrontation finally turned physical when Basin swung a chair at Homan.
Homan countered with punches that knocked the candidate backward over the chairs.
Homan described the punch as a reaction to Basin putting hands on him first.
“He put his hands on me, and as soon as he tried to shove me, I hit him with a left and a right, and that’s when he stumbled and fell over the chairs,” Homan explained.
Basin appeared to lose consciousness after falling.
In the aftermath, Homan stood over him and told him to wake up.
“Watch your f**king mouth, haole boy,” Homan told Basin.
Homan said his mixed martial arts training shaped the way he reacted once Basin swung the chair.
“Just block it and go for the KO,” he told Hawaii News Now, adding that he was trying to protect himself and had adjusted to block the chair.
Police say the confrontation continued after the knockout.
Fox News reported that Basin told someone he was “going to jail” after regaining consciousness and walking away.
Moments later, according to police, Basin came back toward Homan while shouting obscenities.
Maui police say he then pulled out a knife, threatened multiple people and tossed it into the ocean.
Homan said the knife changed the situation after the fight.
“He ended up pulling the knife out on me after the altercation, and that was obviously a game changer when I knew he was off,” Homan said.
Homan claimed it was a 5-inch switchblade. He said he later recovered the weapon and gave it to police.
In Tennessee, another congressional candidate is facing charges tied to a very different confrontation.
Adam Lee Heimerman, 37, of Lenoir City, is accused of admitting to investigators that he used a gun to shoot four automated license plate reader systems across nine days in July.
Heimerman is running as an independent candidate in Tennessee’s 2nd Congressional District against Democratic candidate Michaela Barnett and Republican incumbent Tim Burchett.
The damaged systems were found July 25, according to officials. Three were in Blount County, and one was in Maryville.
The Blount County Sheriff’s Office and Maryville Police Department handled the case as a joint investigation, and Heimerman was charged with four counts of felony vandalism.
At least one of the targeted cameras was made by Flock Safety, the company described as being at the center of a growing national privacy fight.
Officials also said evidence placed Heimerman on the “property of a house of worship” to access one of the systems while a church service was underway.
The arrest came in the same district where Burchett has pushed legislation aimed at automated surveillance.
The bill would stop federal agencies from buying or accessing those systems and would block state and local agencies from using federal funds to purchase them, citing Fourth Amendment concerns.
When Military.com asked Barnett’s campaign about Heimerman’s case, the campaign backed the grievance over surveillance but not the alleged gunfire.
“The answer is not the unsafe discharge of a weapon in public spaces,” Barnett said.
