The 36-year-old man accused of stabbing two people in separate incidents aboard a bus is due to appear in court today, as Auckland Transport describes the event as "deeply concerning".
One man died yesterday, and another was seriously injured after being stabbed by the same person at different times aboard the number 76 bus as it journeyed from Glen Innes towards Ōrakei on Monday evening.
A 36-year-old man arrested for murder and causing grievous bodily harm yesterday afternoon in Auckland's CBD, and was due to appear in the Auckland District Court today.
Speaking to Breakfast, Auckland Transport's public transport director Stacey van der Putten said "the incident itself is deeply concerning to all of us and the wider workforce that represents us".
AT’s Stacey Van der Putten said the rising risk of violence and aggression over the past few years was “startling”. (Source: Breakfast)
“It is one of those moments where you go 'my goodness, does that happen now?' and obviously a huge process to go through to understand what the course of events were and what we can do differently in order to prevent more of the same.”
She said over the past few years things that “fundamentally, things have changed”.
“So if I compare to how it is now vs pre-Covid days in terms of that rising risk of violence and aggression that we’ve seen is startling.
The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including a man arrested after a murder on an Auckland bus, new material about Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein be released, and malware warning for thousands of New Zealanders. (Source: 1News)
She said with the change in “societal behaviours over the last few years”, AT had put in place some measures to help people travel on public transport with confidence.
“Public transport does represent the public, so we’re seeing all the great behaviours and we see the very minority of course, in terms of behaviours that are concerning.”
Van der Putten said there were safety measures in place including CCTV across the network, emergency help points and a new website where people can report incidents to AT.
“We’ve recently strengthened our relationship [with police] in terms of how we can look at joint deployments and the likes as well as information sharing. They’re very responsive to our needs, and we’ve got a broader plan of working with them going forward.”
Detective Inspector Glenn Baldwin said yesterday's arrest was a "fantastic result early in our investigation", and said he hoped this was reassuring news for the wider Auckland public.
"We are not seeking anyone else in connection with this tragic event."
Some flower tributes were left at the corner of the Fenchurch Superette yesterday for the 59-year-old victim, described by the dairy owner as a "really nice gentleman".
"He's a nice, humble guy, big-hearted. He’s a big unit, you know, but he’s like a teddy bear if you spoke to him," Prathul Patel told 1News.
'He didn't want to die' – witness
A bystander who went to the aid of the man outside the Fenchurch Superette told 1News he was on his way to the dairy to pick up a last-minute dinner item when he saw the victim sitting outside the shop.
“I thought he was just tired of walking, I thought he was just sitting there having a rest until I saw all the blood.”
He then noticed a woman who was sitting next to the victim, talking to him. The woman told him to call the ambulance.
The man said he went to the road to make the call and the first police car arrived shortly after while he was still on the phone. He said the officer and woman attended to the victim.
He said there were several people around, including children, sitting outside the takeaway shops who he thought looked scared.
He said the woman told him the man was stabbed on the bus, so he went to the bus stop “to have a look if anybody was there” and saw blood.
When the ambulance arrived, the man said the victim was put on to the stretcher and into the vehicle.
“I can still see his face, like the way he looked at me. I mean, like, I can see that he didn’t really want to die. I don’t know what he was thinking about, you know?
“We did as much as we [could] but there was nothing more.”
He said he now feared for his family’s safety.
“I’m just scared for people like my dad and them, you know, that’s where we go, even for the kids around here, that’s the popular shops in our area – it’s been here a long time. We always go there. And that’s the scary part for the people in our area here, this is where everybody’s catching the bus.”
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