"A focus for our team will be determining how our victim came to suffer those injuries.
"We believe the injuries are linked to an incident outside the victim's Chamberlain Place home about 11.40pm."
A resident in the street, who would give only first name, Sue, said she had heard that the man had been stabbed. Neighbours had told her there had been lots of yelling at the house shortly before midnight.
She believed a Somali man had lived alone at the unit, understood to be a Housing New Zealand rental, for three or four months.
Police had interviewed her yesterday asking if she knew whether anyone had moved into the unit.
Sue, who has lived in the small street for eight years, said the man mostly kept to himself but was friendly and sometimes had Somali visitors.
"We thought it was a peaceful quiet street.
"There are parties from time to time, but it's a pretty laid-back street."
Sue said a neighbourhood watch group operated in Chamberlain Place "but it got away on us last night".
A member of the Waikato Somali Friendship Society, Khadar Ibrahim, said the man was one of the first in the Hamilton Somali community to immigrate to the city in the mid-1990s.
Mr Ibrahim said the man came from a big family but he did not know him very well.
Police interviewed a number of people about the death and carried out a series of searches in the east of the city yesterday looking for persons of interest.
The Waikato armed offenders squad assisted with the clearing of two properties. Distraction devices were used at one but no shots were fired.
Police would not say if they were looking for a weapon.
The man's next-of-kin have been notified.
