A teenager from Vermont who volunteered to come to Kaua’i and work in Koke’e for free was badly beaten twice last Thursday night. The victim, whose family requested anonymity, was returning from his daily chores in Koke’e, hitchhiking between Waimea
A teenager from Vermont who volunteered to come to Kaua’i and work in Koke’e for free was badly beaten twice last Thursday night.
The victim, whose family requested anonymity, was returning from his daily chores in Koke’e, hitchhiking between Waimea and Kekaha on the evening of Feb. 21, when a local man in a Chevy pickup truck stopped and began harassing him.
According to the victim, the harassment turned into a beat down.
After his assailant sped off, friends of the victim said he walked in the bushes alongside the highway for awhile, then stepped out to hitchhike again.
A white sedan picked him up, drove him to a secluded location where the second driver was waiting.
Both men assaulted the victim a second time.
“He suffered lots of facial bruising,” Marsha Erickson, executive director of Hui O Laka-Koke’e Natural History Museum for the past 15 years, said.
Erickson said the community at large on the West Side should come together to see that incidents such as this are not repeated.
“I would appeal to the whole community: Teach your kids not to hate,” Erickson said.
According to Erickson, the victim, who filed a police report, said his assailants appeared to be high.
“This is a young man who traveled here all the way from Vermont to volunteer to help the island (he worked for the Koke’e Resource program). This is terrorism following us to Kaua’i and it must stop,” Erickson said.
In addition to his injuries, the victim also lost his backpack, Erickson said.
Police Chief George Freitas confirmed Erickson’s information.
According to Freitas, the original assailant told the victim: “You guys are ruining this place,” just prior to assaulting him.
Police transported the victim to Kaua’i Veteran’s Memorial Hospital for treatment.
Freitas said an investigation is ongoing.
“For us, any time there’s a crime of violence we don’t downplay it,” the chief said.
