Police seek suspect in fatal daytime stabbing
Police searched last night for a suspect who fatally stabbed a man near a busy downtown bus stop yesterday afternoon.
The stabbing occurred shortly before 2:20 p.m. on Hotel Street near Bishop Street in front of the Ross Dress for Less store and Longs Drug Store. Police said the victim, in his mid-20s, had been harassing the suspect, who stabbed the man in retaliation.
The suspect was described in his late 40s to mid-50s, with a fair complexion, about 6 feet 2 inches and 190 pounds, wearing a green aloha shirt, tan shorts and a blue baseball cap. He was accompanied by a woman, police said.
The victim, who is about 24 or 25 years old, received several stab wounds to the chest, according to an Emergency Medical Services supervisor. He was taken to Queen's Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
Police say the area gets a lot of pedestrian traffic because it is in front of a bus stop and a shopping area. The Ross store is on Hotel and Fort Street Mall.
Hawaii Pacific University students Jeffrey and Anne Koh, 30 and 21, said they were terrorized one night three weeks ago by a man wielding a knife with a 4- to 6-inch blade.
"I wonder if it was the same guy," Jeffrey Koh said. The man pulled out a knife and grabbed Koh's arm with his bloody hands, leaving his arm covered with blood, he said.
Bernie Ysabel, 48, works in the downtown area and catches the bus in front of Long's.
"It's still lighted and it still happened," Ysabel said of the stabbing. "I can't be afraid. I gotta walk through my fear."
She said the area along Hotel Street is ridden with crime and drug problems.
One store employee said he saw the victim fall, but didn't know why or that he died. "I'm kind of shocked it happened right out here," said Ross employee Chris Park.