The Honolulu police SWAT team and helicopter searched the Kane'ohe area yesterday for a 35-year-old man who escaped from the Hawai'i State Hospital with a machete. Police described him as "possibly violent."

Adonis Oandasan was doing yard work when he left the mental hospital about 2:30 p.m. yesterday, police said. He is believed to have taken the machete he was using, police said.

Hospital officials told police that Oandasan has been off his medication for about two weeks and that he thought the FBI and police were after him.

Police said a state court ordered Oandasan confined to the Hawai'i State Hospital. He was charged in December 2004 with second-degree felony criminal property damage for allegedly slashing at least 40 tires on cars in the Kailua Village area on the Big Island. Hawai'i County police had described him as homeless.

Oandasan caused an estimated $3,188 in damage, Big Island police said last year, with additional reports of damage still coming in.

The vehicles with damaged tires were parked in the Lanihau and Kona Coast shopping centers, on Ali'i Drive near Huggo's restaurant, around Hanama Place near the county offices and on Henry Street near the Crossroads Professional Center.

Police arrested him on Dec. 13.

Honolulu police yesterday said Oandasan was last seen in the forest area makai of the H-3 Freeway near Likelike Highway. He is described as 5 feet 2 and 160 pounds, with a stocky build, dark complexion, a goatee and a mustache. He was last seen wearing a blue shirt and dark shorts.

The search was suspended about 6:15 p.m. yesterday because of darkness but will likely resume today, police said.

Oandasan was the ninth person to escape from the Hawai'i State Hospital this year.

The number of escapes has declined sharply in the past decade, from 49 in 1997 to seven last year. Hospital officials say reasons include improvements such as electronically locked doors, a facility-wide camera surveillance system and a more refined system of granting privileges.

The hospital currently houses about 170 patients, though the number fluctuates.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.