Kapolei residents were on edge Friday after reports of two women being attacked in attempted rapes on neighborhood sidewalks Wednesday.
The incidents happened almost 24 hours apart in the Villages of Kapolei. They were a few blocks apart, but within a square mile of Kapolei Elementary, Kapolei Middle and Kapolei High schools.
Police said one woman was attacked at about 12:45 a.m. Wednesday, and the second was assaulted at about 11:20 p.m. the same day.
CrimeStoppers coordinator Sgt. Kim Buffett said police do not know whether the incidents involved the same suspect, but the suspects in both cases are about the same height and weight.
In the first incident the man is described as 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 140 pounds, with short, curly brown hair. He wore a black tank top, black shorts with white stripes, and athletic shoes.
In the second incident the suspect is described as 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 145 pounds. He wore a gray T-shirt, shorts, slippers and a red beanie that police recovered.
The suspects in both incidents are in their 30s.
On Friday afternoon one 18-year-old woman, who only gave her name as Ging, began walking quickly when a male reporter approached her on the sidewalk to ask about the recent attacks.
“It feels scary because I didn’t know it would happen in Kapolei,” Ging said after stopping. “I’m not going to walk at night.”
Ging said she has to walk about a quarter-mile from the bus stop on Farrington Highway to her house because it’s the nearest stop for the Route 40 bus from Pearlridge.
During that walk Friday she was more alert to her surroundings and kept glancing behind her, concerned about the recent attacks, she said.
Ging said she was shocked to hear about the incidents because she said she believed her neighborhood was safe.
According to police, the first incident began when the suspect followed a 19-year-old woman after she got off a bus at about 12:45 a.m. near Kaiau and Kamaaha avenues.
The man grabbed the woman by the neck, pulled her to a nearby bush and attempted to sexually assault her, police said.
A CrimeStoppers report Friday said the woman stopped the attack by talking the suspect into going to her residence nearby, then persuading him to wait outside as she entered her secured building and called police.
Police opened investigations for first-degree attempted sexual assault, kidnapping and third-degree sexual assault.
In the second attack another woman was walking home from work on Kealanani Avenue near Kumuiki Street when a man wielding a knife pushed her from behind, a CrimeStoppers report said.
The man tried to sexually assault the woman as they struggled on the ground.
The man suddenly stopped and fled on foot, leaving behind a red beanie, police said.
Some residents said there were reports of a third attempted sexual assault in the neighborhood, but police said there were only two incidents reported in the area this week.
Residents of the apartment complex Villas at Malu‘ohai, on Kaiau Avenue, said the 19-year-old woman in the first incident lives at the complex.
Afaga Kuresa, a Malu‘ohai resident, said the building manager sent out a warning about the attacks, urging residents to be aware of their surroundings.
“It was crazy,” Kuresa said about the incidents. “It’s now an eye-opener.”
She said when she left Kalihi she thought she moved to a quieter neighborhood, but now wants to teach her children — a 16-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter — how to use pepper spray.
Kuresa was grateful the woman escaped the incident without injury, but added, “It would scar a life, what she went through.”
Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or *CRIME on a cellphone.
