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Visitor brutally
attacked
A man is left with his face
shattered and the memory
of three men laughing
Tim Noreuil can barely open his right eye, and his cheekbone was shattered into 30 pieces by a man for no apparent reason Saturday night in Waikiki.
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"I think they were laughing at me stumbling and trying to get up," said Noreuil, who spoke at a news conference yesterday at Honolulu police headquarters.
It was the first of two major attacks on visitors last weekend. On Sunday a 19-year-old Japanese student was burned when a 12-year-old boy allegedly set fire to her hair and blouse as she boarded a bus in Kailua. The boy has been charged with first-degree criminal property damage.
About 11:15 p.m. Saturday, Noreuil had left Hula's Bar & Lei Stand on Kapahulu Avenue and was attacked while walking on Kuhio Avenue, across from Jefferson Elementary School.
Noreuil said he blacked out and did not know he was hit until he touched his face and noticed blood running down his hand and elbow.
As he stood up, Noreuil noticed that three men in their 20s who had walked past him were still there.
After Noreuil got up, the man, who mumbled something, walked toward him, shook his fist and said: "You want some more, you want some more? Come on, come on."
Noreuil said he believes that man had swung at him with something, but he did not see anything coming straight at him.
Noreuil said he does not know what caused the men to attack him.
"They never asked for money, they never tried to take money, they never said anything to me," he said. "I think they were out to just hurt someone that night."
What also bothered Noreuil was that the men appeared unafraid, "like they had no fear about getting caught and punished.
"They didn't seem to be scared about having to run off or anything," he said.
The three men finally ran toward Kapahulu Avenue when a man on a lanai yelled that someone was hit, Noreuil said.
Noreuil had to have surgery on his face and might need more.
As an anesthesiologist, Noreuil has seen similar surgeries performed many times and said, "This is the surgery I don't want to have."
He described in detail the surgical procedures required to repair the three broken supports in his right cheekbone. They include pulling the eye out of the way and making incisions under the eye and lip. He has retained vision in his right eye, though he has numbness to his face and cannot raise the right side of his lip.
Noreuil, a frequent visitor to Hawaii and owner of a Waikiki condominium, still plans to live and work here permanently.
"I was actually going to talk with Queen's Medical Center, but I ended up being a patient instead," he said.
"I hope they catch these guys," Noreuil added.
Yesterday, police said they had no motive.
"It's just a senseless crime," Detective Ursula Namoca said.
Honolulu Police Department Crimestoppers