Batalti Gabbard, the brother of former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, has been accused of attempting to lure children into a hotel room in Hawaii.
The 55-year-old suspect was arrested on July 12 at the KITV station in Waikiki, following an incident reported by authorities.
According to a statement from the Honolulu Police Department, the situation is categorized as a “stranger danger case,” with Gabbard facing charges of second-degree custodial interference.
On that day, police began investigating after receiving reports about a concerning incident in a Waikiki hotel pool area.
The allegations involve Gabbard approaching a group of children, including a 9-year-old boy, and offering them gum and money to accompany him to his hotel room.
Authorities stated that he asked the children for their names and wrote them down in a notebook. However, the children refused his advances, and he subsequently left the area.
A woman later reported the encounter to the police, drawing further attention to the situation.
State Senator Mike Gabbard commented on the incident, emphasizing family concerns.
In a statement, the suspect’s parents mentioned that Batalti had experienced mental health issues in the past, but had been stable for a decade until recently, when strange behavior surfaced allegedly due to marijuana use.
They noted he has been living on the streets after being kicked out by his wife and had even given away his car to a homeless man. Reportedly, he has been fantasizing about becoming a rock star, adopting the names Batalti and Jim Morrison Jr.
Family members took him for psychological evaluation, stating that tests revealed the presence of drugs like cocaine and marijuana in his system. He was hospitalized for 72 hours for observation.
He was arraigned on Thursday and pleaded not guilty to the theft charges. He is set to appear in court again on August 14 regarding those charges. The date for the custodial interference case has yet to be determined.
It’s worth noting that Tulsi Gabbard stepped down from her DNI role in the Trump administration in June, citing her husband’s rare cancer diagnosis.
