A brazen daylight abduction of a teenage girl in Kalama Valley has rattled area residents.
Mary Waid, 70, who has lived in the valley since 1981, said serious crime such as Wednesday’s kidnapping and assault has never happened in their neighborhood until now.
Police are continuing their search for a male suspect who reportedly abducted the girl by gunpoint and sexually assaulted her in a white van at about 2 p.m.
Police said the girl was jogging on a sidewalk when the assailant — clad in a black ski mask — pointed a black handgun and sexually assaulted her.
She managed to escape and reported the assault to police. The victim was then transported to the Sex Abuse Treatment Center of the Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children.
With her 6-month-old granddaughter in a stroller, Waid briefly stopped on a sidewalk in Kalama Valley to talk about the kidnapping.
She said there have been recent reports of break-ins but no serious crimes in their quiet neighborhood such as Wednesday’s abduction. “I’ve never felt unsafe out here.”
“This is a concern. We need to be a little more vigilant,” Waid said. “We just have to keep our eyes and ears open.”
Anyone with information on the assailant is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300.
UH-Manoa fire accidental, HFD says
The Honolulu Fire Department has determined that the transformer fire at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s lower campus last week was accidental.
The fire, which sent thick, black smoke into the air and knocked out power to 3,300, was caused by a malfunction within the transformer that ignited the transformer oil, HFD investigators said.
Damage from the fire is estimated at $1.5 million. Damage was confined to the initial transformer, with no damage to the second transformer and adjacent structures.
On April 19 HFD responded to the two-alarm fire at 1460 Lower Campus Road, with the first unit arriving at 6:53 p.m. The fire was brought under control at 8:06 p.m. and extinguished at 8:23 p.m. No injuries were reported.
Kauai pedestrian killed in crash ID’d
Kauai police identified a 76-year-old man who died this weekend after he was struck by a vehicle in a chain reaction crash as Wilfred Ibara of Kekaha.
It was the first traffic fatality on Kauai this year.
