She says she and a friend were returning to her car at 2:30 in the morning on January 22 when she saw a man with a knife chasing someone in their group.
"A butcher knife this knife was big," said Angel. "It wasn’t a little fishing knife it was a big knife."
According to police, several men including Iona had stolen a bag from a 42-year-old man near Queen’s Surf. Police say a fight broke out and Iona struck the bag’s owner who then stabbed Iona and one of his friends. Angel says there’s more to the story.
"That guy would come back to my door and start swinging the knife at me and he wanted my keys," said Angel. She said she yelled for everyone to get in the car but the man kept coming.
"He opened my back passenger and he stabbed Preston in my car while he was sitting in my car. When he came and swung that knife at me again in my door that’s when Bryson got out and hit him."
And that’s when she says Iona was stabbed.
"Bryson was backing up already," said Angel. "All we wanted to do was get out of there that is not self-defense. They had their bag back nobody was attacking them.
We just wanted to get out of there and we were scared. You know none of us had a weapon or anything and this guy wouldn’t let us leave. And when he stabbed Bryson, Bryson wasn’t swinging at him. He was backing away back to my car."
Angel says she was interviewed by police but never received a follow-up call for detectives or prosecutors. She says she is appalled the case was dropped.
"It just amazes me that prosecutors are not going to pursue," said Angel. "And it’s not just Bryson, two stabbings within days of each other – it’s okay? Self-defense? I mean to me that sends a message out it’s okay if somebody hits you go ahead and kill them."
She’s referring to the fatal stabbing of 33-year-old Benjamin Rekis at Mayor Wright Housing.
The suspect in that case was also released because prosecutors believe he acted in self defense.
Angel says Iona was always protecting his friends. She says that’s what he was doing in July of 2010 when two of his friends allegedly robbed an internet gaming center in Kaneohe and the gamers fought back. Iona was charged with theft.
"He didn’t go in there with them how the other boys had the mask," she said. "He pulled his friend out of the doorway, that’s all he did."
Iona’s case was dismissed without prejudice last September.
"I just don’t think that they did enough," said Angel. "I mean God there’s people in jail in prison for doing drugs for harming their own body for 10 to 20 years. I just don’t know how they’re saying that this is self-defense. "
See the original article at: KHON2 Developing Stories
