HONOLULU (KHON) — A Hawaii anesthesiologist has been accused of attempting to kill his wife by pushing her off the trail they were hiking on and allegedly hitting her in the head with a rock multiple times.
Gerhardt Konig, 46, was still in police custody as of Tuesday night, with attempted murder charges pending against him, according to police.
Sources told Nexstar’s KHON that Konig, from Maui, was staying in a hotel in Waikiki on vacation with his wife. The couple was hiking the Pali Puka Trail on Monday — also the woman’s birthday — when the alleged incident happened.
According to Honolulu police, Konig allegedly tried to push his wife off the trail and allegedly bashed her head multiple times with a fist-sized rock. Police sources told KHON that the wife told investigators that Konig also tried to inject her with syringes, though it is currently unknown what was in them.
The woman was, however, able to escape. A witness told KHON that two women helped scare off Konig and bring the woman off the trail.
“I saw three girls coming down from [the trail]. One of them was all bloodied up,” said Robert, who didn’t want to share his last name. “I thought at first she fell down, but actually, I heard that her husband, somebody up there, had hit her on the head, bash her head.”
Robert said there were other good Samaritans who came to help the seriously injured woman.
“Because there were buses up there, there was a nurse on one of the buses and they bandaged her up and waited for the ambulance to come up,” he said. “Gee, I never thought something like that would happen here, you know.”
The woman was last listed in critical condition at Queen’s Medical Center.
Konig had disappeared by the time police arrived. He was arrested nearly eight hours later near Nuuanu Pali Drive, just before 7 p.m. after a brief foot chase.
Police are still working to determine what led to the attack. Konig was employed with Anesthesia Medical Group, a company contracted by Maui Health. No one from the medical group responded to KHON’s request for comment.
A statement from Maui Health said Konig had been suspended from the medical staff pending investigation.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
