‘Why would they do this?’: Man seriously injured after Halloween night attack in Waikiki

KANEOHE (HawaiiNewsNow) - A Kaneohe man is recovering after a brutal assault on Halloween night in Waikiki left him with several broken bones on his face along with other injuries.

Nui Furtado was in Waikiki with a group of friends and co-workers, celebrating a recent job promotion and taking in the sights and sounds of Halloween night.

“Everybody’s out there for the same reason, right? To go out there, have fun, enjoy Halloween night,” he said.

Instead, Nui was the victim of the attack that left visible effects on his face days later.

“They say I have a fractured orbital, a cracked jaw, a broken nose,” he said.

Nui said he and his friends were walking down Kalakaua Avenue near the Duke Kahanamoku statue at around 10:30 or 11 p.m. on Halloween when they passed another group of men.

“There was a group of guys, they were walking past, and Nui looked back at them ... and when I looked back them there was like or five of them just running at us,” said friend and co-worker Hannah Tyler.

Nui continued the story: “I remember getting pushed into the bushes, and from what I thought were punches. I was getting hit with a weapon of some sort.”

“I was trying to get back up and someone was hitting me in the face with a shovel. It’s what I found out now, that it was a shovel,” he added.

Tyler said her friend was probably was pleading with the men to stop.

“Then he hit me on the hand with the shovel and I cowered a little bit, and then I look at him and I was like, ‘Stop! You’re gonna kill him! Stop!’” said Tyler.

“And then he just ran away. They all just ran away.”

Nui called his father to come to the hospital.

“I saw his face and the first thing I did was turn around and I couldn’t believe that that was my son,” said Kimo Furtado. “I went in there and I gave him a hug and I gave him a kiss and I said son, I’m sorry that this happened to you.”

Nui spent a day and a half in the hospital and was released Wednesday.

He still faces at least two to three weeks of recovery.

Honolulu police said there were at least two felony assault cases in Waikiki on Halloween night, including the attack on Nui. Police are still looking for suspects, but have made an arrest in the other assault case.

“Hope that we can just find them so that we can put them away so they can stop doing this to people who are just trying to mind their own business,” said Tyler.

Despite the horrific attack, Nui believes he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But he also can’t understand why it happened.

“Why would you have to do this?” he said. “It doesn’t take much to be a nice person or have a fun time. You can still have fun without doing bad things.”

Nui’s family has started a GoFundMe page to help with his medical expenses here.

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