A complaint filed Monday in District Court charges Sebastian Mahkwan with second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault in the Jan. 23 liquid chemical attack on a sidewalk near Ala Moana Center on a 25-year-old Chinese language teacher.
The complaint alleges the 29-year-old caused serious bodily injury with a liquid chemical to Danying Zhang, resulting in substantial risk of death.
Emergency room doctors reported that Zhang suffered severe burns to a large portion of her body, and when she was intubated, the chemical got into and burned her mouth and throat, and her lungs collapsed, the complaint and a probable-cause court document say.
The 25-year-old woman received permanent disfigurement from burns to large areas of her face and multiple areas of her body, legs and feet, the documents say.
She will need skin grafts to large areas of her face and body, the complaint says.
Mahkwan made his first court appearance in Honolulu District Court on Monday.
District Judge Clarence Pacarro confirmed bail at $2 million. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in District Court.
The court document says a woman saw a man wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and cargo pants who threw the liquid onto Zhang. She screamed in pain and ran into Planet Fitness for help where several patrons assisted her.
On Jan. 24, members of the police Strategic Enforcement Detail and Crime Analysis Unit canvassed the area and recovered footage from numerous video surveillance cameras before and after the attack.
Surveillance video of the suspect was released Thursday to the public, and officer Roger Lake recognized Mahkwan from an Oct. 17 encounter in Iwilei.
Officer Chantel Tavares also recognized him, having had about 10 encounters with him in the past five years.
Police made checks of the Iwilei area, where he was known to live.
Mahkwan was found and arrested in an area near 500 Nimitz Highway, and charged Saturday.
On Jan. 22, just a day before the attack, he had been released on an $8,000 bail bond after awaiting trial since October at the Oahu Community Correctional Center on charges of third-degree assault on a man and drug possession. He has no state convictions, but has more than 50 criminal citations related to homelessness.
Zhang, a Chinese national who has lived here since 2022 while teaching as part of an international exchange program at Maryknoll School, is being assisted by the Chinese Consulate based in Los Angeles.
Local Chinese organizations, including the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, are trying to raise funds to help cover her medical expenses and to help her parents from Shandong province to be at their daughter’s side.
Sonny Zhang (no relation to Danying Zhang), executive director of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, said the young woman has no family here. She does have a boyfriend, who is a public school teacher and is devastated by the attack, he said.
