Assaults have tenants seeking more control

A man was stabbed and a security guard was threatened with a machete at Mayor Wright Homes on Tuesday, the same day security staffing at the public housing complex was reduced, a tenants’ leader said.

The incidents show a need for rules to give tenants more power in policing their complex, said Fetu Kolio, president of the Mayor Wright Tenants Association.

Kolio said security at the housing complex had been increased after the fatal stabbing of TJ Mori, 24, in September. About eight guards patrolled the grounds nightly, but that number was cut Tuesday to three guards, Kolio said.

Kolio said a security guard told him that three big fights were taking place at the complex at the time of the stabbing.

"He (the security officer) stressed that it was very difficult trying to observe all three incidents all going at once," he said. "There was no way they could monitor what really was going on."

Police said the stabbing and the threatening case appear unrelated.

According to police, a 50-year-old security guard approached a group of males who were drinking about 7:40 p.m. An 18-year-old man took out a machete and chased the guard, who got away. Police found the younger man nearby and also the machete. He was treated at a nearby hospital for injuries he suffered in another incident shortly after threatening the guard, police said. Officers arrested the man for investigation of terroristic threatening.

About 10 minutes after the guard was threatened, a 22-year-old man tried to intervene in an argument outside his home when a man who was in the argument wielded a knife, chased him and stabbed him as he tried to get away. The attacker, a man in his 20s, fled and remained at large Wednesday afternoon, police said. The victim was treated at the hospital and released.

Kolio said problems arise when people who don’t live at the complex come in and cause trouble. Part of the problem comes from having no managers present at night, he said.

Kolio said he wants the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, which administers Mayor Wright, to give residents more power to have troublemakers removed from the property when managers are not present.