Hawai'i residents yesterday struggled with grief, anger and disbelief over the tragic death of 23-month-old Cyrus Belt.

By noon, a makeshift memorial on the pedestrian overpass where Cyrus was thrown onto the freeway included about a dozen stuffed-animal dolls, a big red Elmo and balloons.

"It's unnerving, that's what it is," said Mike Walters, 27, who lives at The Magellan, an apartment complex just across the street from the entrance to the overpass.

Walters stopped by the memorial to add a yellow Care Bear to the mounting tokens.

Cyrus was thrown from the overpass to his death 24 hours before, allegedly by 23-year-old Matthew Higa.

"Someone should find out what happened to him (Higa) and make sure he doesn't do it again. It's a failure of the health system and the justice system," Walters said.

Walters said he watched the event unfold Thursday afternoon from his seventh-floor apartment. He said he saw Higa run up the street pursued by a bicyclist, and he saw the police gather. He also said he could see the white sheet covering the toddler's body on the freeway.

"This is kind of a quiet street, aside from the traffic," he said. "For something like this to happen here ... it's terrible."

Yesterday, people came by the memorial every 10 minutes to leave notes or toys. Some stood silently looking over the railing, others had tears in their eyes.

One man stooped to tuck a note and a bouquet of white roses among the gifts, then knelt to pray.

Traffic flowing beneath the overpass slowed near the site, drivers honking and waving at those standing overhead.

Most of the visitors had no personal connection to the toddler. Azure Ingebrethsen, 32, came from Pearl City with her 1-year-old son, Justin, to pay her respects and leave a balloon and a bear with angel wings.

"I didn't know this boy, but he reminded me of my son," Ingebrethsen said, watching Justin play near the makeshift memorial. "They're about the same age."

Ingebrethsen said her husband was "really disturbed" by the incident and that she herself "felt lost" yesterday.

Department of Health employees answered more than 100 calls before 12:30 p.m. yesterday through the department's 24-hour Access Line.

The hotline averages 350 calls a day, but Dr. Thomas Hester, chair of the department's adult mental health division, said he expected calls to total more than 500 by the end of the day.

Afternoon statistics on the number of calls were not available because the workers "were under such pressure to take calls," he said.

Hester said HPD asked the department to re-release information about the hot line to media because the Police Department was receiving so many calls.

By the end of yesterday, hundreds of comments had been posted on an Advertiser blog and an online forum dedicated to discussing the incident.

"This is such a tragedy," wrote one person. "I cannot shake this feeling of helplessness, confusion, anger and mostly overwhelming sadness."

Many who joined the discussion expressed grief at Cyrus' death, and anger at the man taken into custody.

"This is a horrendous act and he (Higa) deserves to be punished," wrote one person. "I know that Matthew Higa is someone's son, someone's friend, someone's nephew, but that baby was someone's child, someone's brother."

Another wrote: "As a parent aspiring to bring another life into the world, I fear for our sad state of affairs. This is not the Hawai'i I grew up in."