Nanakuli mom assaulted by tourist in viral video shares message of kapu aloha
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NANAKULI, Hawaii (KITV) — A video of a tourist assaulting a local woman at a Starbucks drive-through in Nanakuli has gone viral, and police are investigating the incident.
The woman who took the video – Nalani Gasper of Nanakuli — says the woman in pink was a passenger in the vehicle in front of her that jumped a long line of customers on Wednesday. Gasper says she confronted the male driver about cutting her off, but instead of an apology, the video shows his female passenger walking over to Gasper’s car, cursing at her, saying she’s from New York and hitting her.
“I knew it was getting really escalated, that’s when I decided I made a choice in that moment, you’re going to make sure no matter what happens, you’re not going to do anything physical, do not leave the car, turn on the camera, because I knew what was coming,” Gasper said. “I had to make that decision because I have too much to lose. I raised two daughters, and they’re worth more to me than making a point of I’m going to respond back the same way that you’re responding to me.”
Gasper said she kept calling the woman a “tourist” because she didn’t want to resort to calling her demeaning names.
“I chose to reference her for exactly what she was, which was a tourist gone bad, which was a tourist with no respect, which was a tourist who was very ignorant in their behavior. And I’ve had people cut in front of me before, people say sorry, sis, Sorry, I didn’t know, you know, whatever the case may be. That’s, that’s what we need to understand is that we all make mistakes, but it’s how we handle and our response,” Gasper said. “I understand people are saying I should have just let it go. But you know what, I’m sorry, I’m one to, you got to know what you did. And I didn’t think I did anything wrong by kindly letting them know what they did was not nice. And it doesn’t warrant physical assault, for you to feel like somebody told you, you know, kindly what you did was wrong, and you want to assault me over it. That’s not okay.”
“Your vacation is my home, I live here, you can’t buy a ticket, and then do a New York moment, everywhere you go. I understand New York is very different in your ways, and that’s fine. But that’s not, we don’t do disrespect,” Gasper said. “I also want to show the locals that you can do it this way and something will happen. So I’m trying to walk by faith and not by fear here. That’s where I’m at.”
“I want everybody to know mahalo. I’m not a victim. I’m not trying to portray a victim. I am actually a victor. And the reason why I feel like I’m a victor is because you came here to the Aloha state. And you saw exactly what Kapu Aloha is, in a moment that could have gone completely different,” Gasper said. “It doesn’t just happen on the mountain. Everybody in the world. It happens in everyday life. And that’s who, that’s the type of people we are, we lead by heart.”
Gasper says police told her the other vehicle was a rental from Hertz, black Nissan Sentra license plate number TSY 887. If you have any information about this case, you’re asked to contact Honolulu police.
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