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Hilo detectives have charged a 27-year-old Big Island man with first-degree assault, 17 counts of first-degree criminal property damage and resisting arrest. The charges stem from a report early Sunday evening (December 9) that a man was throwing rocks at vehicles traveling on Puainako Street near the Kilauea Avenue intersection in Hilo.

South Hilo patrol officers responded to the reports while the crimes were in progress and arrested Patrick Luk of Hilo.

Eight drivers reported that they were driving on Puainako Street when a man threw baseball-size rocks at their vehicles for no apparent reason. The rocks struck the bodies of some vehicles and windows of others.

In one case, a rock shattered a vehicle's side window and hit a 3-year-old boy in the face, leading to serious injuries, including a laceration, fracture and brain injury. The boy was flown by air ambulance to The Queens Medical Center on Oahu, where he remains in stable condition.

None of the other vehicles' occupants received any physical injuries.

Luk is being held at the Hilo cellblock in lieu of $85,500 bail pending his initial court appearance scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in South Hilo District Court.

Witnesses at the scene told police that additional victims left the scene before police arrived.

Police ask anyone who may have witnessed this incident or who is an undocumented victim to call Detective Rio Amon-Wilkins of the Criminal Investigation Section at 961-2386.

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