Profanity laced 911 call details beating

Editor’s note: This story contains graphic content and language.

KEALAKEKUA — The 34-year-old man charged with attempted murder in a brutal downtown beating called 911 to report the incident, telling dispatchers to get officers to the scene “before I (expletive) kill him.”

Prosecutors played the 2 1/2-minute-long 911 call that drew gasps, “ohs” and “wows” from the courtroom Monday as they worked successfully to prove the state had probable cause to support charges of first-degree assault and attempted murder filed against 34-year-old Anthony “Tony” Beaudet-Close in connection with the Oct. 28 beating of a 39-year-old man who remains hospitalized.

Shylene Larson, a victim counselor for the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, said as of Monday that the victim remained hospitalized at The Queen’s Medical Center on Oahu and “is considered unresponsive.”

Detective Walter Ah Mow, with the Hawaii Police Department’s Area II Criminal Investigations Section, said doctors at The Queen’s Medical Center on Oahu said the victim suffered a “traumatic brain injury, a subdural hematoma causing coma, and multiple facial fractures.”

West Hawaii Today is not identifying the man as he is a victim, despite his name being used during testimony. He was not present to testify at Monday’s preliminary hearing, during which Kona District Court Judge Margaret Masunaga found probable cause to transfer to Circuit Court for further proceedings with an arraignment and plea slated for Nov. 23.

In the 911 recording, after dispatchers ask if police, fire or medics are needed several times, groaning, breathing and other unintelligible sounds can be heard before a man’s voice yells, “(Victim’s name), you (expletive) pigeon, (expletive) you’re a (expletive) scrub, (unintelligible) and a (expletive) rapist.” Then the sound of 911 being dialed is heard and the heavy breathing resumes until the man says “where are the (expletive) cops?”

Again, the dispatcher asks what assistance is needed, at which point Beaudet-Close informs police of the incident near the Aloha Gas Station on Henry Street.

“I need more than (expletive) police, it’s a fugitive,” he said, to which the dispatcher informs him officers are on the way. “He’s unconscious, he’s (expletive) a parole violating (expletive) rape artist (expletive) drug (expletive) dealing (expletive).”

After dispatchers ask why the person is unconscious, the man responds, “I knocked him the (expletive) out.” Prodding, the female dispatcher asks his name to which he responds, “who cares, get over here now before I (expletive) kill him.”

The dispatcher tells the man he is being recorded, and continues to prod him for his name without success before Beaudet-Close says, “I want them here right now police for this (expletive) to (expletive) serve his time. (expletive) telling me he going kill me.”

He eventually gives his first name, Anthony, before the call ends.

Ah Mow said police identified Beaudet-Close as the suspect after officers determined he had gone to Laverne’s Sports Bar covered in blood and made contact with a bouncer and liquor control worker there after the Oct. 28 attack.

He interviewed Beaudet-Close at the Kona Police Station on Nov. 7, at which time Beaudet-Close told Ah Mow he had parked his car near the minimart and was looking for his sister’s friend regarding a moped, when someone called out to him to fight. Beaudet-Close told Ah Mow that that man had made threats toward his girlfriend and her son, along the lines that he would “kill her and bury her in Ocean View and piss on her grave while her son watched.”

“At that point, Tony said (victim’s name) brandished a knife and lunged at him and he punched (the victim) and (the victim) fell down,” Ah Mow testified, noting that Beaudet-Close said he managed to kick the knife out of the victim’s hand before continuing to kick him before calling 911.

Beaudet-Close said he fled the scene when officers arrived because he was scared. Ah Mow said police have not recovered a knife and have yet to corroborate or confirm that the victim had made the alleged threats.

Matthew LoSasso, who lives in a building at the end of Kalawa Street overlooking the area of Henry Street and the gas station, also testified Monday about what he witnessed around 9:30 p.m. that night. He told the court he was drawn outside twice because of loud yelling by one person.

When the yelling continued, he went outside for a third time, and said he saw a man in a red shirt nearing the area, which prompted him to grab his binoculars from inside the house. But, by the time he returned, no more than 30 seconds later, the man in the red shirt was gone.

Police have yet to identify or question the red-shirted man, Ah Mow said later during the hearing, “even ‘til now, I am looking for any witnesses to come forward.”

With binoculars, LoSasso said he was able to put together what he was hearing, but was unable to see other than the light from a cellphone about 75-100 yards away. LoSasso also testified he believed the man on the phone was talking with 911.

“I realized then that previously I could hear slapping noises and wasn’t sure what that was, but now that I had the binoculars I could see him standing over him and beating him and that’s when I noticed there was someone on the ground,” LoSasso said. He later told the court he heard 20-30 “slapping sounds.”

As the victim on the ground lay motionless, “he never moved,” LoSasso said. The suspect was “just pacing around and in between yelling, he would stop and hit him and kick him again.”

When an officer’s vehicle, bearing the blue dome light, turned left onto the roadway, LoSasso said the man fled the scene.

Beaudet-Close remains in custody in lieu of $150,000. He has 13 convictions dating to 2004 including second-degree assault of a law enforcement officer in 2013, resisting arrest and first-degree promoting a detrimental drug in 2011, third-degree promoting a detrimental drug in 2009m and unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle in 2006. The remaining convictions are for contempt of court or failure to appear in court.