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Canadians say
slaying won’t stop
their island visits

'It's a sad thing, but it could
happen anywhere,' says
a Vancouver resident

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By Leila Fujimori
Star-Bulletin

Tourists Frank and Wilma Dyck, both 70, say they arrived at the Ohana Waikiki West hotel shortly before an 81-year-old man visiting from Canada was robbed and fatally injured there early Tuesday morning.

"It could have just as well been him (her husband)," said Wilma Dyck, who is visiting from Vancouver, British Columbia. "But it's not going to scare us from coming back."

That seemed to be the sentiment of most Canadian tourists in Waikiki yesterday as visitors heard of the beating death of Richard Chaplan of Richmond Hill, a suburb of Toronto, Ontario. Some 9,000 Canadian visitors a day come to Hawaii, especially during the winter months.

"I've always felt safe," said Lil Weston, 77, of Winnipeg, Manitoba. "You just have to use common sense. But he (Chaplan) didn't go off the beaten path, so that's what makes it worse."

"It's a sad thing, but it could happen anywhere," said 81-year-old Andre Gauthier of Vancouver, British Columbia.

But some said that Chaplan's death Thursday from his injuries and the publicity from it in Canada may cause some to put off a trip to Honolulu.

"Now people might say 'look what happened to so-and-so,' " said Emma Gabel, 88, of Winnipeg, Manitoba. "It will be a deterrent to some people, especially older people."

Experts say violent crime is still rare in Waikiki. "Honolulu is safer than almost any city our size in the country," said University of Hawaii criminologist Meda Chesney-Lind.

Hawaii ranks 44th among the 50 states for violent crime, she said.

Chesney-Lind said the hotel industry needs to ensure hotel lobbies are safe by monitoring all spaces where people could be vulnerable. But she said restrooms pose a problem area criminals will likely exploit.

Murray Towill, president of the Hawaii Hotel Association, said Tuesday's incident was isolated and "shocks and surprises everyone because it is an infrequent event."

Ken Selders, assistant manager at the Miramar at Waikiki, across the street from the Ohana Waikiki West, said few guests, many of whom are Canadian, have expressed concern about the attack.

"I don't think it's going to hurt business," said Jesse Lu, a vendor at the International Market Place, also across the street from the Kuhio Avenue hotel. "Security-wise Waikiki is very dense with police," Lu said. He said many Canadians have been here many times and know the area is safe.

The area, however is not without problems.

Selders said a few street fights have broken out there.

Creg Takasane, supervisor at Quicksilver Boardriders Club Waikiki, a shop next to the Miramar, said he sees a lot of drug-peddling targeting tourists on Kuhio Avenue.

Selders says he wonders why the suspect in the case, with 46 prior convictions, had been out on the street.

Police say Steven Michael Hauge, 43, who was arrested in Chaplan's death, remains a prime suspect but as yet has not been charged.

Hauge was arraigned in Honolulu District Court Friday on kidnapping, robbery, terroristic threatening and burglary charges in a separate robbery case that occurred last Monday. He is being held at the Oahu Community Correctional Center.