No charges filed in Ala Wai stabbings
By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer
A man held by police in connection with a brawl early Monday morning at the Ala Wai Boat Harbor that left two men dead and two people seriously injured was released from custody yesterday without being charged.
Police said it is possible that no one will be charged in the stabbing that left surfer Kirk Hodges, 50, dead from lung damage caused by multiple stab wounds to the back.
Hodges
The body of Frederick Flores, who police believe stabbed Hodges and the other two people in the 2:10 a.m. incident, was pulled from the harbor waters he dived into while running from the area where the attack took place.
The city Department of the Medical Examiner said Flores, 18, drowned and that his death was accidental. Hodges' death was ruled a homicide.
The altercation began when eight to 10 young men arrived in two or three cars at the parking lot that adjoins the boat harbor. Members of a second group who often stay overnight in their vans or on the beach said a violent confrontation erupted after members of the younger group were asked to turn down their car stereos and to not call attention to themselves.
Friends of Hodges who said they were present when he was stabbed, said Hodges was attacked after he tried unsuccessfully to intervene in the rapidly escalating situation.
Police got several conflicting reports from witnesses and were told initially that as many as three men from the younger group may have stabbed Hodges and the two others from his group.
But only a single Buck knife with a 4- to 5-inch folding blade was recovered although divers searched the bottom of the harbor for more weapons.
A man and a woman who were members of Hodges' group and who were also stabbed during the incident remained in serious condition at The Queen's Medical Center yesterday, police said, but appear to be recovering.
Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-7412.
