Makua Beach Standoff: Residents Say They Are Being Run Off By A Man Camping Out 9 People who regularly use the beach say Samson Souza has been blocking access for months. He says he’s trying to protect endangered spinner dolphins.
A Makaha man has been blocking public access to Makua Beach for the past eight months, including threatening some people with violence.
But city and state authorities have not forced Samson Souza and his family to leave the West Oahu beach even though it’s illegal in Hawaii to obstruct access to a public beach.
Police charged him in November with harassment and terroristic threatening for threatening to physically harm a woman. Now authorities are waiting to see if he shows up in court this week on the charges.
Officers say when they contacted Souza at Makua Beach, he put his phone up to record them on his social media and said he told them the people were foreigners bothering the dolphins.
Local residents have been talking about him on social media for months.
“He has no right to control a public beach,” Makaha resident Emily Silge told Civil Beat. She had an altercation with Souza in early November.
