A vacation to paradise has turned into a nightmare trip for one Kansas family after a three-hour snorkeling tour ended in bloodshed and a young man’s arrest.
Avery Nissen stands accused of repeatedly stabbing the captain of a catamaran during the snorkeling trip to Honokōhau Harbor, located off the Kona coast, according to Hawai’i Island police.
The department said in a statement that Nissen, 21, allegedly stabbed Stan Lurbiecki on Thursday, April 16, with a knife typically used for fileting fish.
The stabbing incident allegedly occurred just after 3 p.m.
Kona Patrol Officers responded to the harbor after being advised a 55-foot-long fishing vessel was returning from sea with a stabbing victim and the suspect behind the attack.
“Upon arrival, it was reported that the captain of the boat” was attacked by Nissen without provocation, the statement reads.
“Other passengers onboard the vessel intervened and restrained Nissen,” a police statement explained, adding that “the motive for the attack is unknown.”
The catamaran captain, 62, sustained stab wounds to the lower abdomen as well as cuts to the hands and his head.
He remains in stable condition at Kona Community Hospital.
“This is like the most random, wildest, craziest thing you’ll ever hear of,” Lurbiecki said while speaking to Big Island Now from his hospital bed.
Lurbiecki said that he had taken Nissen, his mother and a sibling out on the boat to snorkel. He noted Nissen stayed on board while the other two passengers went snorkeling.
Lurbiecki said that they were 30 minutes away from shore, on their way back, when Nissen snuck the 10-inch knife from the boat’s galley and stabbed him in the back.
“I wrestled the knife out of him, and he continued to frantically stab away at me,” Lurbiecki told the site.
Nissen’s mother tried to intervene and stop her son, Lurbiecki said.
That’s when Nissen jumped into the water, where he floated for a while before later climbing back into the boat.
Nissen has been charged with attempted murder as well as first- and second-degree assault.
A court date was scheduled for Monday, April 20, but it was unclear at press time what transpired during that proceeding in Kona District Court.
Nissen is being held on a $1,570,000 bond.
Anyone who may have any information regarding this incident is asked to contact Detective Bradley Llanes at (808) 326-4646, ext. 268 or via email at Bradley.Llanes@hawaiipolice.gov.
