KEY POINTS:
Police say they are closing in on the man they want for the fatal bashing of the devout 61-year-old Baptist grandfather friends said "did not have a bad bone in his body."
Graham Wallace Arcus was returning home from a church meeting on Saturday night when he was attacked as he walked past a bus stop in Manukau Rd in the Auckland suburb of Royal Oak.
He died yesterday morning.
Police interviewed some of the five young people at the bus stop and said today they were "comfortable with the way we are progressing".
However, Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Cramer would not reveal details of others who were at the bus stop.
Nor would he say if they had interviewed the young person believed to have delivered the fatal blow.
"I am comfortable with the way the inquiry is progressing at the moment. We have got a lot to get through."
He said police were still talking to witnesses and "gathering the evidence we can in as careful a manner as we can".
Witnesses had told police the section of Manukau Rd in Royal Oak was particularly busy about 9.30pm when Mr Arcus was attacked.
"Anybody who was driving past or stopped to render assistance and who we haven't spoken to already, I would love them to come forward," he said.
He said police were confident the killer would be found.
"It has always been one of those situations that is going to be solvable."
Mr Cramer said the dead man's family was "absolutely distraught" at his violent death.
"They are incredibly nice, genuine people. By all accounts Mr Arcus was a gentle, caring, community-minded person - very involved in the church.
"The extreme, sad irony of this whole thing is that he was walking home from a church meeting where collectively they had been praying for the community."
He said he was the sort of person who would have been the first to help his attacker.
Yesterday one of Mr Arcus' church friends said they were angry at the violence of the attack but they had forgiven the attacker.
"That helps paint a picture of the sort of person the victim was," Mr Cramer said.
- NZPA
