A teenager has died in hospital a day after being assaulted in a car stopped at traffic lights in downtown Auckland.
Eli Francis Holtz, 18, was assaulted at the intersection of Wellesley St and Queen St in the early hours of Saturday morning.
He was assaulted when the vehicle he was a passenger in stopped at the traffic lights on Wellesley St West and Queen St at 3.15am, police said.
He was taken to Auckland Hospital and put on life support. He died at 8.45pm last night.
Social media tributes said he was surrounded by whanau in hospital that night. Plans are being made to return the teen's body to Whangarei. It is understood he had previously attended Bay of Islands College in Kawakawa.
Police said a man, 30, has been arrested and charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and will reappear in the Auckland District Court tomorrow.
The charges are expected to be upgraded, police said.
An autopsy was being conducted today and detectives were reviewing CCTV footage, Detective Inspector Scott Beard said.
Police want to speak to the occupants of a white Toyota Prius that was behind the vehicle the victim was in at the time of the assault.
As part of the inquiry police want to speak to three men who were at the intersection at the time and may have witnessed the assault. Police believe the trio caught a bus to Takapuna a short time later.
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