Tulsi Gabbard's brother arrested in Waikiki over alleged child luring

Batarti "Bhakti" Gabbard, 55, the brother of former national intelligence director and former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, was arrested Friday in Waikiki and charged with second-degree custodial interference, Hawaii police said. Police say he approached multiple children at about 2 p.m. at a Waikiki hotel pool, including a 9-year-old boy, offered gum and money and invited them back to his hotel room. Witnesses told Honolulu Police Department he asked the children for their names and wrote them in a notebook before the children refused and he walked away. State Sen. Mike Gabbard, Batarti Gabbard’s father, told Hawaii News Now his son is suffering a mental health episode, has been on drugs and was admitted to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation Friday afternoon. The arrest followed the pool incident and the custodial-interference charge, and authorities processed the case through criminal and mental health channels per the statement from family and police.