Police charged a 32-year-old homeless man arrested early Monday morning for a double-stabbing at Wailoa State Recreation Area.
David Lester Bars was charged late Monday afternoon with attempted second-degree murder and second-degree assault.
His bail was set at $260,000.
Officers responded to a 12:21 a.m. report Monday of a stabbing during a disturbance at the state park in Hilo and found two victims in a private vehicle bound for Hilo Medical Center. Police say the victims are a 27-year-old Pahoa man who was stabbed in the throat and a 24-year-old Pahoa woman with a cut on her right leg.
Officers followed the victims to the hospital. Police determined the victims were injured when an argument became physical, according to a police statement.
“We’re trying to establish a motive right now. Once the victim comes to, we’re trying to get more information from him,” acting Lt. Norbert Serrao of Hilo Criminal Investigations Section said early Monday afternoon. “Apparently, it was a verbal argument with the two parties.”
The male victim was treated for his injuries and remains at Hilo Medical Center in serious condition. His condition later was updated to stable. The female victim was treated for her injuries and released from the hospital.
Other officers en route to the park arrested Bars, who police say matches the description of the stabbing suspect, on Piilani Street, which leads to the park.
Asked if a knife or other weapon was recovered, Serrao replied, “We’re looking for it.”
Serrao said the victims are a couple and police think they and Bars are acquainted.
Bars was taken to the Hilo police cellblock while Hilo police detectives continue to investigate.
According to court records, Bars has no felony convictions in Hawaii, but was sentenced in July 2014 to 30 days jail, with 16 days suspended and two years probation, after pleading guilty to misdemeanor domestic abuse. In exchange for his plea, another count of domestic abuse was dropped by prosecutors.
Bars also was found guilty of violating his probation in April, and the clock was reset on his two-year probation, which remained in effect when he was arrested for the alleged stabbing.
Bars, who was born in Los Angeles, reportedly has had at least one run-in with California authorities before coming to Hawaii.
The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario, Calif., reported Sept. 15, 2004, that Bars, then 21 and living in Pasadena, led Ontario police officers on a freeway chase and crashed an allegedly stolen Mazda Protege, after reportedly abducting a 2-year-old boy from a Victorville home, which prompted an Amber Alert.
Bars reportedly overturned the car on the eastbound Interstate 10 and fled before being taken into custody.
The San Bernardino County Sun reported Bars dropped off the boy, the son of an acquaintance, at his grandparents’ Ontario home and took off in the car.
“It’s our understanding that the dad asked (Bars) to watch the toddler,” San Bernardino County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Robin Haynal said at the time, the Sun reported. “He left the room and when he came back, some money, his car and the toddler were gone.”
The child was found unharmed.
The Tribune-Herald was unable to find the outcome of the abduction and auto theft case.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
