Tourist’s death rattles Hawaii

HONOLULU (AP) – Winter-weary Canadians have long been loyal customers of Hawaii’s $12 billion tourism industry, happily exchanging snow for sandy beaches and balmy sea breezes.

But a deadly attack on a visitor from the Toronto area has rattled guests and hosts alike in this state where violent crime is rare.

Shortly after Norman Chaplan, 81, of Richmond Hill, Ontario, arrived at a Waikiki hotel with a tour group Tuesday, he was struck several times on the head with a rock in a hotel lobby restroom. The attacker fled with Chaplan’s wallet, and Chaplan died two days later.

“These sorts of things don’t happen with any kind of regularity in Hawaii and when they do occur it’s that much more shocking,” said Paul Perrone, chief of research and statistics in the state Department of the Attorney General.

Hawaii’s violent crime rate ranks 44th among the 50 states, although its property crime rate is the eighth highest, University of Hawaii criminologist Meda Chesney-Lind said.

That the attack was on a Canadian makes it even more unusual.

“I am extremely saddened that someone who came to enjoy our beautiful islands would have come to such grievous harm,” Gov. Ben Cayetano said Friday. “It is a great shock to have a visitor so brutally attacked here.”

The day Chaplan died, Mayor Jeremy Harris had proclaimed Honolulu “the safest city of its size in the United States” in his state-of-the-city address. Honolulu was listed as the least violent of the nation’s 20 largest cities in the FBI’s 1998 Uniform Crime Reports; in 2000, it had 24 murders.

The day after the attack on Chaplan, Steven M. Hauge, 43, identified by police as a homeless career criminal, was arrested and now faces charges that could include murder. He also was being held on kidnapping and robbery charges in another case.

Hawaiians have responded with an outpouring of sympathy and financial assistance for Chaplan’s family.

A fund was established at the Bank of Hawaii and the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii has been providing the family with day-to-day needs.

“The community has really pulled together on this one,” said Rika Ikeda, the society’s president. The society, supported by a state grant, helps tourists who are victims of accidents or crimes.

With tourism generating a third of Hawaii’s gross product and a third of its jobs, there is a clear financial incentive for the industry to dispel any notions that Hawaii is an unsafe destination.

But Ikeda said money isn’t what’s motivating the public.

“I know we’re considered a big city, but in a sense it really has a small town flavor where people pull together and have really big hearts, and that’s what we call the aloha spirit,” she said.

Jonathan Chaplan, 42, the victim’s son, made note of that Friday.