Although the victims claim the beatings are unprovoked, police say they are finding a common thread: drugs.
Police speculate the beatings stem from turf wars or confrontations between those involved in drugs.
A gang/street crime detail is investigating the rash of assaults, which have occurred in drug-infested neighborhoods in central Honolulu, said Lt. Bill Kato, head of the general crime detail.
Of particular concern are Akepo and and Pua lanes off North King Street, North and South Kukui streets, makai to Pauahi and Smith streets in Chinatown.
At least 14 aggravated assaults - those involving serious bodily injury - were reported in February in central Honolulu, nearly double the number the month before.
Minor assaults in the area also rose from 94 in January to 148 in February. Misdemeanor cases tend to increase before police hear about the more serious cases of people being assaulted or threatened with weapons.
One woman recently reported getting her car bashed by a group of males after she allegedly got lost driving through Akepo Lane. But police suspect drugs were involved and the males trashed her car instead of her.
On the same street earlier this month, a man was beaten with a pipe. And last Thursday, a man who said he was filling his tank with gas at the same Shell station where Howard Ebisu was found unconscious March 16, was slapped and threatened with a knife.
Ebisu, 51, remains in a coma at Queen's Hospital. He also was involved with drugs, police said.
Downtown resident William Brown said he heard a man screaming the night a man was found severely beaten at Pauahi and Smith streets March 19. "The guys getting mixed up in it are getting ripped off," Brown said.
Brown, who's lived downtown for the past two years and walks down Smith Street to get to the Pali Safeway, said he often encounters "druggies" offering him crack cocaine for sale.
Police are looking into reports that people who live in nearby Mayor Wright housing may be responsible for the vicious assaults in the neighborhood. No arrests have been made yet.
Even after the hollow-tile block wall that surrounded the nearby municipal parking lot came down last year, illicit activities continue to flourish, residents say.
Police monitor the area frequently and make arrests, but more needs to be done, said Bill Mederos, who has lived downtown since the 1940s. "They go jail, come right back out."
In a sweep Thursday, Kalihi crime reduction units arrested up to 18 people on Akepo Lane in less than three hours for various drug offenses in a reverse sting operation.
The growing violence in the neighborhood has prompted one community group to increase the call for more prison space for violent and repeat offenders.
"We're very concerned and aware of the situation," said Dennis Chun, chairman of the Downtown Neighborhood Board. "The entire state is facing the issue of public safety on the streets. It's a major crisis. We've got to wake up and if we don't do something soon, we will lose Hawaii."