A 21-year-old Kansas man, Avery Nissen of Overland Park, Kansas, was charged with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and second-degree assault after police said he allegedly stabbed a 62-year-old male boat captain during a three-hour snorkel tour in Hawaii. The attack happened Thursday at 3:21 p.m. at Honokōhau Harbor in Kailua-Kona, and the aftermath quickly moved from a tourist excursion to the machinery of police charges, hospital care and a $1.57 million bail order.
Who Got Hurt First
Police said the injured boat captain was identified by KHNL as Stanley Lurbiecki, a veteran in the boating industry, and that he received numerous stab wounds to the head and hands, as well as a stab wound to the lower abdomen. He was transported to a local hospital and was in stable condition. That is the human center of the story: a working captain on a boat, wounded while doing his job, then handed off to the hospital and the legal system.
Police said other passengers on the boat restrained Nissen after he allegedly began attacking the man with a filet knife. The source does not say what led to the attack, only that a motive was not known. In the absence of explanation, the scene reads like a sudden rupture in a tightly controlled leisure industry, where passengers had to step in because the formal apparatus was not there to prevent the violence in the moment.
The Industry and Its Aftermath
The incident happened on a catamaran owned by Hawaii Nautical. Mark Towill, owner and president of Hawaii Nautical, said, "Stan is stable, he’s recovering. He’s a real hero and a fighter." Towill also said, "I’m just incredibly grateful that our team is safe and that the situation ended the way it did. I’ve never heard of anything like this happening in this industry before, and just really grateful to all of our team for the way that they reacted, the professionalism that was demonstrated."
Those remarks place the event inside the world of paid tourism, where the company’s concern is both the injured worker and the continuity of the operation. The captain’s survival is described in the language of resilience, while the company’s gratitude centers on the team’s reaction and professionalism. The source gives no further detail about the passengers or the crew beyond the fact that they restrained Nissen.
What the Courts Do Next
Bail for Nissen was set at $1.57 million, and he was expected in court on Monday afternoon. That is the next stage of the hierarchy: after the boat, after the knife, after the restraint, the state steps in with charges and a price tag attached to freedom. The legal system now frames the incident through second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and second-degree assault.
Hawai‘i Island police said the incident happened Thursday at 3:21 p.m. at Honokōhau Harbor in Kailua-Kona. Police said the motive was not known. The source offers no explanation for why the attack happened, only the sequence of injury, restraint, hospitalization and prosecution.
The facts left standing are blunt enough. A tourist from Kansas was charged after police said he stabbed a veteran boat captain during a snorkel tour. Passengers restrained him. The captain survived and was in stable condition. The company praised the team’s professionalism. And the state, as always, arrived with charges, bail, and a court date.