StarBulletin.com

'Ice' use might be a factor in stabbing at Koko Crater


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POSTED: Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Guy Tanaka was standing on top of Koko Crater, looking out to Hanauma Bay and talking on his cell phone when he heard a voice behind him say, “;You gotta end the call now.”;

;[Preview] Suspect In Koko Crater Stabbing Arrested
;[Preview]
 

In what appears to be a random attack , 19 year old Benjamin Davis was arrested on second degree attempted murder.

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Tanaka turned around, saw a teenager wearing only boxer shorts and with a crazy look in his eyes, and then spotted a hunting knife in his hand.

“;I saw the knife in his hand, and I just took off,”; Tanaka said, recalling the Sunday attack in which he and another man were stabbed while hiking the popular East Oahu trail.

“;I jumped off the helicopter landing pad, but he stabbed me before I took off. I just kept running away from him.”;

Tanaka, 55, who suffered one stab wound to his back, left the hospital yesterday. He returned to his parents' home in Hawaii Kai to recover from the bizarre attack, which ended in the arrest of a 19-year-old Kalihi man, Benjamin Davis, on charges of first-degree attempted murder.

Tanaka, a resident of Riverside, Calif., and originally from Hawaii Kai, said Davis seemed “;crazy”; during the brief encounter.

“;It was his eyes,”; Tanaka said. “;He just stared as he looked at me.”;

Tanaka kept running until he met another group of hikers, including Gerri Watanabe of Kaimuki, and her sister, Steph Hong.

“;I told them not to go up because there was a guy with a knife and another hiker up there that's probably being attacked right now,”; Tanaka said.

Another hiker was at the top of the mountain at the time of the stabbing at about 3:20 p.m. That man, in his 20s, was critically wounded after being stabbed several times. Other hikers found him on the side of the mountain after he either fell or was pushed.

“;We found the second man in a ravine,”; said Watanabe, who hikes Koko Crater regularly. “;We told him that help was coming. We couldn't get down to him because the cliff was so steep.”;

The second stabbing victim, who was unidentified yesterday, remained in the hospital in critical but stable condition.

Tanaka will have to remain in Hawaii with his parents for at least another week because the knife just nipped his lungs, causing an air bubble that could expand if he gets on an airplane.

Police searched for Davis for nearly four hours, using helicopters, before finally finding him naked in brush near homes above Ahukini Street.

“;It's good to know that they got him in custody,”; Tanaka said. “;Hopefully everything will work out and they can put the guy away wherever he belongs, whether it's a psychiatric hospital or in jail.”;