Two Japanese visitors were hospitalized with stab wounds following separate incidents in Waikiki within hours of each other early Tuesday.
Neither man sustained life-threatening injuries, but officials said the incidents underscore the need for visitors to not let their guard down in Hawaii.
In the first incident a 29-year-old man was brought to the Queen’s Medical Center in critical condition after being found on Kuhio Avenue near the Waikiki Trade Center at about 4:22 a.m. with a stab wound. He was later upgraded to serious condition.
Responding police traced the incident several blocks away to an Ala Wai Boulevard apartment unit where they arrested a woman, 21, living at the address on suspicion of attempted murder and first-degree robbery.
Police said the man and woman met in Waikiki and went to the suspect’s residence. After the two argued, the man was stabbed once while the woman sustained minor injuries of an undisclosed nature. A cellphone and cash were taken, police said.
Police believe the second stabbing occurred on Liliuokalani Avenue near Cleghorn Street at about midnight, although the victim did not report the incident or call for help until about 9 a.m.
The victim, 25, said a man and woman approached him from the rear as he was walking and, after a brief struggle, assaulted him with an unknown sharp instrument. The suspects fled the scene with cash, police said.
The man was taken from the Pacific Beach Hotel to Queen’s in serious condition.
The woman arrested in the attempted murder case has a criminal record. She served 30 days in jail in 2011 after being found guilty of street solicitation of prostitution, a petty misdemeanor.
Jessica Lani Rich, executive director of the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii, said her organization is assisting both victims.
Rich advised visitors to stay on guard, especially if they’re out between midnight and 3 a.m. “Those are sort of dangerous hours in any city and not just Waikiki,” she said. Tourists should “get whatever business they need to have done in the earlier evening hours and to stay safe between the midnight hour and 6 a.m. because there are, unfortunately, criminals and suspicious types who are out at that time.”
Jerry Dolak, director of security and risk management at Outrigger Hotels & Resorts, said visitors should remember the axiom “buyer beware” when interacting with someone offering to engage in an illegal activity.
“Their motivation is to take as much as they can from a potential customer,” said Dolak, president of the Hawaii Hotel Visitor Industry Security Association.
Rich said VASH helped 2,111 visitors in the first nine months of 2012 compared with 1,371 visitors during the same period in 2011. She stressed, however, that those numbers include all “unfortunate situations,” including disputes with merchants or domestic situations, not just criminal activity.
The statistics also are statewide, not just for Waikiki.
Honolulu police acting Sgt. Anthony “Tony” Kalahui, part of the Waikiki Community Policing Team, said officers are constantly trying to educate residents and visitors alike about how to avoid being crime victims.
