Hilo assault victim dies, police open second-degree murder probe
A beating near Hilo International Airport turned fatal days later, pushing police to reclassify the case as second-degree murder.
A Hilo assault victim has died, and Hawaii Island police have opened a second-degree murder investigation into a beating on Operations Street near Hilo International Airport.
Police said the victim was 57-year-old Michael Alan Torres Jr. of Hilo. South Hilo patrol officers were sent at 5:11 p.m. Saturday, May 9, to the 100 block of Operations Street after a report of a fight involving several people assaulting a man. Officers found Torres unconscious at the scene.
Torres was taken first to Hilo Benioff Medical Center with serious head injuries and then flown to Queen’s Medical Center on Oahu for further treatment. He died there at 3:39 p.m. Thursday, May 14, police said.
The case changed from an assault investigation to a homicide after Torres’s death. Hawaii Police Department said the file is now being investigated as second-degree murder, and detectives scheduled an autopsy for Friday, May 15, to determine the exact cause of death. The scene was processed for evidence, and the investigation remained active as of that day.
Detective Robert Kamau Jr. of the Area I Criminal Investigation Section is leading the case, which is listed under police report number 26-039705. Anyone with information is asked to call Kamau at (808) 961-2384 or email Robert.Kamau@hawaiipolice.gov. Anonymous tips can be made to Crime Stoppers at (808) 961-8300.
The location, in the airport corridor of Hilo, puts the case in a heavily traveled part of East Hawaii that many residents know well. Police have not said what led to the assault, and the investigation now centers on identifying everyone involved and determining how the beating became fatal.
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