A witness heard a police officer yelling "stay with us bro" as emergency responders attempted to save a fatally wounded 24-year-old man at Auckland's Albany Bus Station.
The critically hurt victim later died from his injuries in hospital and a 16-year-old has now been charged with murder after police arrested the teenager in Hamilton on Monday night.
Passengers were racing to catch buses at Albany Station Tuesday morning. A small police presence was the only reminder that the day before, emergency services raced there to help a man in critical condition.
"I think when it hit the most is we heard a police officer shout, 'stay with us bro'," witness Callum Maxwell said.
Maxwell uses the bus to get to university most days. He arrived at the station moments after the alleged stabbing and said he saw a man who had been badly wounded.
"Lying on the ground [was] a big pool of blood, where the buses leave from, and a lot of onlookers [were] visibly shocked and in tears," he said.
Maxwell watched as emergency responders tried to revive the man.
"They were doing CPR for about I think half an hour, paramedics, police," he said.
A 16-year-old has appeared in the Youth Court on Tuesday charged with murder after Auckland police travelled to Hamilton to arrest the teenager. A post-mortem examination was due to get underway on Tuesday and police continue to speak with witnesses.
Police have also identified the victim but we can't report his name because of Youth Court automatic suppression rules.
In a post online his family said "there are no words to describe how much he will be loved and missed".
The altercation also left a second person with minor injuries.
Albany public transport users have continued boarding buses again after witnessing and hearing about the incident.
"I feel comfortable, I don't know, I know it's a bit crazy for everyone else," one person said.
"Felt alright, quite a lot of security and stuff around here," another said.
"It was really, really sad to hear about what happened and I think now we will all be thinking about it a lot more now that's for sure," a third said.
An unexpected incident in the middle of a Monday that turned a suburban bus station into a crime scene.
