It is amazing to me that an abductor would take his victim to a restaurant in a busy downtown area! He must not be very bright, and thank goodness for that.
"I yelled out, 'That’s the girl. That’s the AMBER alert girl.'"
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“This is, something is off. And I just, I even if it wasn’t her, my brain was like, I need to get her,” said Bridge Hartman.
Hartman said the teen and Duncan Mahi walked up to the host stand twice for a table. When they walked away, Hartman noticed they began to argue.
”And I realize then they started tussling... I was I was like — Wait, what’s happening? It just wasn’t connecting,” Hartman said. “And then, and then I realized it was her. And I yelled out, that’s the girl from that’s the Amber Alert girl. That’s her. That’s her.”
He said the suspect let go of the teen for a second. That’s when Hartman rushed in.
“She got away from him, like just for like a brief moment. And I was able to grab her in time. And I rushed her into into our back of our restaurant.”
Out front at the time was artist Dragonfly, who is well known in downtown Hilo.
“All of a sudden I can hear a girl screaming, ‘Help, help, leave me alone’,” said Dragonfly. “And then here comes this guy dragging her.”
Hartman said that suspect attempted to convince everyone that Debina was his daughter.
Another good Samaritan at the scene was Kori Takaki. She and her mom were eating at Cafe Pesto when the incident went down.
“When I looked at her, it looked like a man and a woman fighting,” said Takaki. “But she was wearing men’s clothing and I thought, that’s strange. She doesn’t look like she’s wearing her own clothes.”
Witnesses said Debina was scared and shaken up, but not hurt.
”She was saying he kidnapped me, he kidnapped me. Thank you,” Hartman recalled. “And I just got into the office. Got her water.”
Takaki stayed with Debina until the police arrived and help her get in contact with her mom. She said the real hero is the Cafe Pesto host.
“He really was a brave young man,” said Takaki. “I just know this is a mother’s worst nightmare.”
Hartman said this is the first time encountering a situation like this but he’s relieved to have acted on his instincts.
“So if you do see something, just do something,” Hartman added.
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