Man found with head injuries in Hilo apartment

Hawaii County police arrested a 68-year-old Puna man Monday for allegedly trying to kill a 65-year-old Hilo man found with severe head injuries.

Police responded to a report of yelling at a Hilo apartment complex at 10:20 a.m. Monday. Officers found a man who was severely injured and the suspect inside the victim’s apartment on Hualalai Street.

The victim was taken in serious condition to Hilo Medical Center with a fractured skull and severe lacerations to his head.

Police arrested the man, of Hawaiian Paradise Park, on suspicion of second-degree attempted murder and first-degree robbery.

Hilo resident is identified as person killed in crash

The National Park Service identified a man killed Sunday in a vehicle accident in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park as Bryson Areola, 20, of Hilo. Another occupant in the vehicle, 19-year-old Julien Quiocho of Hilo, was flown to the Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu in critical condition with head and spinal injuries.

Park rangers believe the accident happened at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday when the driver lost control and crashed into the lava field off Highway 11 near milepost 35.

Speeding and alcohol may have contributed to the accident, and an investigation is under way, the park service said. Anyone who may have witnessed this accident or who might have information about it is asked to contact Hawaii Volcanoes National Park at 985-6001.

Man is critically injured running across highway

A 19-year-old Waipahu man was in critical condition late Sunday night after he was hit by a car as he ran across Kamehameha Highway near the H-1 onramp, police said Monday.

The victim apparently had crashed his car at about 10 p.m. and was walking across the westbound lanes of the highway, an eighth of a mile from Valkenburgh Street, when he was struck by a 2009 Buick driven by a 44-year-old woman from Mililani.

The woman told police she saw the man run onto the highway at the last moment but could not avoid him.

Police said a car registered to the victim was found nearby on its roof after flipping over a guardrail of Kamehameha Highway.

It was the second critical accident in the area Sunday. At about 4:45 a.m. a 22-year-old man was brought to a hospital in critical condition morning after crashing his pickup truck into a concrete freeway support pillar under the H-1 viaduct, police said.

The accident happened in the Ewa-bound lanes of Kamehameha Highway just before Valkenburgh Street. Police said speed and alcohol appear to be factors in the crash in the median between Kamehameha and Nimitz highways. A city ambulance crew was behind the 1981 Ford pickup truck and was first at the scene, an Emergency Medical Service supervisor said.

Investigator rules arson as cause of Pearl City fire

A Honolulu Fire Department investigator has determined that a fire Sunday at an abandoned Pearl City duplex home was caused by arson and has turned the case over to the Honolulu Police Department for further investigation.

The fire on Luehu Street caused $250,000 in damage to the structure, Main said. The duplex had no contents and was abandoned and in foreclosure, Honolulu Fire Department Capt. Terry Seelig said Monday.

The fire was reported at 7:59 a.m. Sunday, and firefighters were on the scene five minutes later, he said. They had the blaze under control 10 minutes later, Seelig said.

Public aid sought in ID’ing victim of S. Kona hit-run

Big Island police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man killed Friday in a hit-and-run crash in Captain Cook, South Kona.

Police are looking for the driver who fled the scene sometime before 8:13 p.m. and was driving a Chevrolet pickup truck or Blazer that struck the pedestrian.

Police described the pedestrian as a local man between 35 and 45 years old, 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 6 inches tall and 140 to 150 pounds, with short black hair, a mustache and beard and a tattoo, possibly of a dragon, on his right arm.

Police said the man was walking north on a shoulder of Hawaii Belt Road, three-tenths of a mile south of the 108-mile marker in Captain Cook, when he was struck.

Anyone with information regarding the pedestrian or the vehicle is urged to call officer Larry Flowers at 326-4646, ext. 229, or the police nonemergency line at 935-3311.