Glen Innes locals are mourning the death of a man killed on a bus in the Auckland suburb this week.
Two passengers were stabbed on the same number 76 bus on Monday night, first in Glen Innes and later in Ōrakei.
The first passenger died from their wounds, and the other was seriously injured.
A 36-year-old man was remanded in custody when he appeared in the Auckland District Court today, charged with murder and grievous assault.
By Wednesday, several flower bouquets rested outside the Fenchurch Superette in Glen Innes, where the 59-year-old victim received first aid before being rushed to hospital and later dying from his injuries.
Police have officially identified the victim as Sefo Leger, 59, of Wai o Taiki Bay in East Auckland.
"Our investigation team extend our deepest sympathies to Mr Leger's whānau for their loss, especially at this time of the year," Detective Inspector Glenn Baldwin said in a statement.
Police said his family had asked them to relay a message to media that they would like privacy while they grieve.
Fenchurch Superette manager Praful Patel was in charge of the store on Monday night, and ran to help.
"I heard the commotion outside and somebody told me that somebody got stabbed and I ran out. I think I was the third or fourth person who ran out. I knew exactly who the person was," he said.
"I ran back inside the shop, got some t-shirts, you know, because I didn't have any towels, because he was bleeding profusely, you know, trying to stop the bleeding."
Patel said a nurse who happened to be nearby did her best to keep him alive.
"Lucky there was a nurse that was coming to the business and the dairy here, and she was helping him out. Without her help, I think he would have died probably another 10 minutes earlier," he said.
Patel recognised the victim as a regular customer.
"I've known him for about 20, 25 years. Yeah, he's a local boy, lives up the road there. He's got a family, he's got a son, he's got a daughter," he recalled.
"He's a real nice guy, absolutely nice guy, humble guy."
Police arrested a 36-year-old man on Tuesday afternoon, following a manhunt.
The cordon in Glen Innes had been lifted, and residents were trying to get on with daily routines.
But local man David said he did not feel safe anymore.
"It put a shudder down my body soon as I heard about it. I thought, 'oh my God, that's too close, that's too close'," he said.
"There's too much stabbing and people getting bloody shot and everything. It's not safe in Auckland anymore."
Another resident Preethy was waiting for a bus just a few metres from the scene.
While a suspect had been arrested, Preethy still felt nervous.
"I do feel unsafe travelling, but it's just... Life goes on," she said.
"Like, okay, yeah, they have arrested someone, but you never know, like, when a person can go crazy and attack random people. I was stunned something like this could happen here. It's scary, yeah."
Fellow commuter Larson felt the same way.
"Yeah, it's awful news. I mean, it's close to home. I catch this bus every day, and so it's one of those things where, you know, we start thinking about other ways of commuting because, yeah, it's just nasty."
Larson said he felt hesitant to take the bus on Wednesday morning, but had little choice.
"My partner and I were discussing other options last night, but it's one of those things where you kind of just have to do what you've got to do," he said.
"I'm glad the police have got him, but you never know. You see some odd figures around every now and then, and you've always just got to keep your wits about you, I suppose."
In Ōrakei, where a second person was stabbed and received serious injuries, one local who asked not to be named questioned the lack of mental health support in the community.
"Everybody knows that there's no network support system set up to properly help assist people, mentally, emotionally, physically, financially, even with our wellbeing and our living. Nobody really is considering the proper way to pick up these pieces," they said.
Patel echoed that sentiment.
He said that such an unstable individual should not have been allowed in the community.
"I'm glad that they found him, but why was he in the community in the first place?"
"How safe are you catching a public transport or the public trains or anything like that? When a person is not stable, there should be a facility where they should be getting looked after."
Auckland Transport told RNZ it was deploying an additional six to 10 transport officers on the Britomart to Glen Innes bus route every day for the next week.
Director of Public Transport Stacey Van Der Putten told Checkpoint the community could feel reassured violent events like Monday's were not common.
"Everybody is deeply troubled and shocked by the incident. We really feel for the [victim's] family and the community. These things do really rattle people."
"Public transport is safe. There's a very minority in terms of what we see is bad behaviours across the network. We have up to two million passenger journeys every week, 99.99 percent of people behave really well."
She said people reporting incidents of poor behaviour helped them determine where more security was needed on Auckland's bus network.
"Getting accurate information is key. We've recently relaunched our [partnership with] Crime Stoppers. people are seeing that campaign a lot more so instead of getting one or two, we're getting four or five reports a day on that which can be actionable and used to support deployment or work with Police in terms of key things being seen across the network."
-By RNZ
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