KILAUEA — A 14-year-old North Shore girl was kidnapped in Kilauea and apparently gang-raped by four local males at Anini Beach Monday night, the Kaua’i Police Department reported Tuesday. Following the 11:30 p.m. incident, the victim was treated for injuries
KILAUEA — A 14-year-old North Shore girl was kidnapped in Kilauea and
apparently gang-raped by four local males at Anini Beach Monday night, the
Kaua’i Police Department reported Tuesday.
Following the 11:30 p.m.
incident, the victim was treated for injuries at Wilcox Memorial Hospital and
released.
KPD began an investigation and Tuesday arrested a 21-year-old man
and a 30-year-old man, both from Kapa’a, as well as an 18-year-old man from
Anini. A 17-year-old, also from Anini, was detained.
All of the suspects
were released for lack of evidence to hold them. They could be indicted by a
Kaua’i grand jury, law enforcement officials said.
The victim apparently
broke away from her assailants after the attack and called police for help. Her
injuries were not substantial, police said.
The incident, coupled with two
other recent sexual assault reports in Hanalei, has some residents on
edge.
“There is a climate of fear on the North Shore I have not felt,” said
Michael Vandeveer, of Hanalei.
In March, police investigated a sexual
assault case involving a woman who was staying in a vacation rental home on
Weke Road in Hanalei. The visitor told police she was assaulted after she had
gone to bed and her boyfriend was asleep in another room.
Last week,
another woman reported that a man broke into her Aku Road home in Hanalei as
she slept. Her screams apparently caused the assailant to flee.
No arrests
have been made in either of these cases.
Lt. Bill Ching, who heads KPD’s
Adult Investigations Section, said the cases are all under investigation, but
that it can’t be determined at this time whether they are linked.
In the
Aku Road case, the assailant cut through a screen window in the early morning
hours and entered the woman’s home as she slept.
Vandeveer, who is a
neighbor of the Aku Road resident, said the woman woke up, saw her attacker and
screamed causing the intruder to run out of the house. He was then chased by a
neighbor who heard the woman cry out, Vandeveer said.
The assailant ran in
an easterly direction toward Kuhio Highway and disappeared about six blocks
from the woman’s home, he said.
“My wife talked to the woman today, and she
says that she is afraid to return to her home,” and will be moving out,
Vandeveer said.
The sexual assault incidents, a burglary on Aku Road, and a
recent robbery incident at Pine Trees in Hanalei Bay that involved a Mainland
visitor have made residents more cautious, Vandeveer said.
Some residents
have talked about taking up arms to protect themselves, he said.
“They are
asking what they can do to prevent it from happening to themselves.”
