The doctor accused of trying to push his wife off a scenic Hawaiian cliff and bashing her head with a rock when she refused to take a photo with him has now been charged with attempted murder.
Gerhardt Konig, a 46-year-old anesthesiologist, was arrested on Monday hours after the vicious attack on his 36-year-old wife, Arielle Konig, at the Pali Lookout, a famous panoramic vista on Oahu, according to Honolulu police.
Konig was charged Wednesday with second-degree attempted murder and his bail was set at $5 million, prosecutors said. He is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday, KITV reported.
“Why did he do this? That’s a mystery,” Konig’s attorney, Myles Breiner, told the outlet.
“He has nothing on his record here or anywhere else he’s ever lived in,” the attorney said.
“So it’s rather surprising that out of nowhere, he would engage in this kind of behavior.”
The doctor allegedly freaked out his nuclear engineer wife when she refused to take a picture with him while hiking along the popular Pali Puka hiking trail to the lookout, which offers stunning views of the Oahu coastline.
He tried to push her off the trail, then punched his wife and hit her with the rock — and at some point, even tried to jab her with two syringes, according to Hawaii News Now.
Arielle Konig was rushed to a hospital in critical condition with multiple facial and head injuries after the alleged attack early Monday, according to the Honolulu Police Department.
Her doctor husband was arrested later that evening near Pali Highway after a brief foot pursuit, cops said.
Konig, who was employed by an independent contractor to provide medical services as an anesthesiologist in Maui, has been suspended, Maui Health said in a statement on Monday.
