GARY T. KUBOTA / GKUBOTA@STARBULLETIN.COM Robert Keanini suffered head wounds when he was attacked Feb. 7 while trying to stop a fight at a public housing project on Maui. In the background is his wife, Mary Naauao.

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Beaten Maui volunteer
was set for award

Robert Keanini was due to be
recognized for his anti-drug efforts

WAILUKU » A Maui man who intervened in a fight was brutally beaten at a state public housing project in Happy Valley less than six days before he was to be recognized for his volunteer work with a neighborhood crime watch patrol.

Robert Keanini said he was supposed to receive a certificate signed by Mayor Alan Arakawa at a Feb. 12 luncheon recognizing outstanding patrol volunteers. But he did not get out of the hospital until Feb. 13.

Keanini said he was not on a neighborhood watch patrol about 9:40 p.m. Feb. 7, but he rushed with a few other residents to help to stop fights in the parking lot at Kahekili Terrace.

Residents said there were three truckloads of men who had come from outside the public housing area.

"I was telling them just for leave, just for go. 'You no belong here,'" said Keanini, who is recuperating at home. "That's when I got whacked."

Charged with attempted murder is Potaufa Ula, 18, of Kahului.

Siusupe Havosi, 19, has been indicted on a charge of second-degree assault in the use of a beer bottle to allegedly attack a man.

Police Lt. John Jakubczak said detectives are still investigating the incident and trying to talk to witnesses.

The attack has made the community fearful that the men will return, but their worries have eased somewhat because of police increasing patrols at the 56-unit complex, said Mary Naauao, Keanini's wife.

Several men had thrown beer cans at residents and had returned with a total of about 20 young men, residents said.

Keanini, 43, said he remembers walking toward the group. He was struck with an aluminum bat and suffered severe head injuries and a broken right arm.

Another male resident received head injuries from someone striking him with a beer bottle.

Residents said the attack took about seven to eight minutes.

"Everything happened so fast," recalled Michael Kaleikini, 33, another neighborhood watch volunteer. "I was concentrating on calling for help to the police."

Marc Tolentino, another resident, said he saw six men kicking and punching Keanini. Tolentino said one of the men forced a resident to drop an aluminum baseball bat, and another man picked it up and struck Keanini.

Keanini, left unconscious on North Market Street, was bleeding from a head wound in the back and another on the right side of his head, residents said.

Tolentino said he took off his shirt and wrapped it around Keanini's head to stop the bleeding.

Keanini said he does not really know why the men attacked the residents.

"I heard stories they were looking for someone else," he said.

Keanini said he joined the volunteer patrol because he wanted to discourage drug dealing in the complex.

He said: "It shouldn't have happened in the first place. All they had to do was leave."