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2 men charged with hate crimes in alleged racially motivated attack on Maui

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / MARCH 11
                                U.S. Attorney Kenji Price for the District of Hawaii holds a press conference.

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / MARCH 11

U.S. Attorney Kenji Price for the District of Hawaii holds a press conference.

Two men were indicted by a federal grand jury this week for an alleged racially motivated attack Feb. 13, 2014, on a Caucasian man when he tried to move into their Native Hawaiian neighborhood of Kahakuloa on Maui.

The indictment charges Kaulana Alo Kaonohi and Levi Aki Jr. with a hate crime for allegedly attacking a man, identified only as C.K., with a shovel because of his actual and perceived race and color, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Hawaii, the FBI and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, said in a news release Friday.

“Violence perpetrated towards others on the basis of race is an intolerable form of conduct that we must combat as a law enforcement community and a Nation,” said U.S. Attorney Kenji Price for the District of Hawaii. “My office will do its part to protect the public by holding those who commit hate crimes accountable for their conduct.”

If convicted, Kaonohi and Aki face a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment.

The FBI conducted the investigation.

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