of educator stabbed to death, killer in custody

Educator Stabbed to Death, Killer in Custody: A school teacher was stabbed by a man in broad day-light. Educator Asa Tamashita was sitting on a bench when a man stabbed her 25 times.


Asa Yamashita

It's a horrific crime. An educator is stabbed to death in broad daylight in a crowded shopping center and some who knew her think it was completely random.

Co-workers say Asa Yamashita was as nice as can be with no known enemies which is why her death is such a shock.

This afternoon she was at Ewa Town Center just sitting on a bench eating saimin.

"This girl that works next door at Supercuts, she said she just cut her hair and that she was waiting for her husband or someone to pick her up," said Alana Cardenas, who works at the American Savings Bank right next to the crime scene.

That's when an unidentified 25 year old man walked up and stabbed Yamashita several times. She managed to make it into the Lovely Nails II salon where people there helped her and tried to keep the killer out. Witnesses did get a look at him.

Eye-witnesses says the killer could be

a local Filipino male, maybe 5'5, stocky build and completely bald head

The suspect is now under custody by the Kapolei Police.

Click here to watch the news report at Google Video.

KGMB9 obtained video of Asa Yamashita from a couple years ago. She’s seen in a video project for Waianae High School where she once taught English and was currently the literacy coordinator to get kids to read more under the Silent Sustained Reading (SSR) program.