Fatal Maui Shark Attack Victim Identified as Dr. Thomas Smiley: Reports

Stock image of a shark. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

A 65-year-old retired optometrist was identified as the victim of a fatal shark attack while he was swimming in Maui, Hawaii, on May 25.

Dr. Thomas Smiley, of Granite Bay, California, was attacked by a shark about 180 feet from the shore of the Kaanapali Shores Resort, reported Hawaii News Now.

First responders pulled him from the water, but they couldn’t resuscitate him.

A witness said that when they pulled him and began CPR, they saw that he was missing part of his leg, KTLA reported. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

“As we got closer, I saw some blood on his stomach and then I got looking a little bit more, and his wrist — it looked like the skin on his wrist was just torn off,” witness Allison Keller said. “And then I got looking closer, and his entire left leg from his knee down was just missing.”

Smiley leaves behind his wife, three children, and grandchildren.

Longtime friend Gary Taxera told the news outlet: “He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time doing something in a place he loved.”

“He was a good-hearted man, and people who didn’t get to know him, really missed out,” Taxera said.

He was on vacation with his wife and recently retired in 2019, CBS Sacramento reported.

It’s not clear what kind of shark attacked Smiley. Many fatal attacks in Hawaii have been blamed on tiger sharks.

The last fatal shark attack in Hawaii occurred in 2015 when a snorkeler was killed off Maui.

A Tiger Shark is pictured in this file photo. Shutterstock

Last year, a 26-year-old Massachusetts man was attacked and killed by a shark near Newcomb Hollow Beach on Cape Cod.

Arthur Medici, 26, was reportedly attacked by a great white shark.

A 911 call in the shark attack death of Massachusetts man Arthur Medici was released this week. CNN

Smiley’s death is the sixth shark attack in Hawaii in 2019, according to the Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources, reported the Daily Mail.

In May, a woman was bitten by a shark in Oahu, suffering arm injuries, the report said.