StarBulletin.com

Koko Crater stabbings suspect taken to hospital


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POSTED: Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Attempted murder charges were pending today against a 19-year-old Kalihi man arrested Sunday night for allegedly stabbing two men on Koko Crater trail, according to the city Prosecutor's Office.

Benjamin Davis was taken to the Queen's Medical Center last night to treat an unspecified illness.

Because Davis wasn't charged within 48 hours after his arrest, he was technically released from police custody in the stabbing cases. However, police arrested Davis at 2:15 p.m. yesterday on suspicion of harassment, a petty misdemeanor, for allegedly “;acting up”; in the police cellblock, according to a spokeswoman. Police were monitoring him at the hospital and planned to charge him in connection with the stabbings after he was treated. Davis was in a secured location at Queen's.

On Sunday, he allegedly stabbed a 55-year-old California man in the back and allegedly stabbed another man, who is in his 20s, several times, critically wounding him.

Police arrested Davis after a four-hour search in Hawaii Kai near Koko Head Crater. He was found naked in brush near homes above Ahukini Street.

The 55-year-old victim, Guy Tanaka, who was released from the hospital Monday, said Davis seemed “;crazy”; when he stabbed him with a hunting knife, describing an unhinged look in the attacker's eyes.

Family and friends suspect Davis, who worked two jobs as a security guard, had been given crystal methamphetamine by a neighborhood drug dealer last week, causing his behavior to turn bizarre.

They, too, said they saw a crazed stare they never saw in Davis before.

Davis' behavior changed dramatically beginning Thursday, when he began acting paranoid and saying odd things, such as that the government was out to get him and that he had to get rid of his cell phone because the government was listening, according to his family and friends.

Neighbors, friends and family say Davis was a good, humble person who helped other youth in his public housing neighborhood of Kaahumanu Homes to stay on the right path by helping them with schoolwork and warning them against drugs.

Davis played varsity football for McKinley High School and graduated in 2007, after which he attended Long Beach Community College for a year before returning to Honolulu.