Teen who fell may have been tagging theatre

Floral tributes outside the Balmoral theatre reflect friends' sadness at the death of Jesse Moimoi. Picture / Dean Purcell

Jesse Moimoi had "cleared his head" and was trying to figure out his path in life when he fell to his death from a building, possibly while tagging.

At first police thought the body lying in Dominion Rd, near the intersection with Balmoral Rd, on Monday morning was the victim of a hit-and-run accident.

Indications began to emerge that he had fallen from the old Capitol Theatre about 5.40am.

Just what exactly Jesse had been doing on the four-storey building at that time of the morning is unclear, although his mother, Taulua Moimoi, thinks the 17-year-old may have been tagging.

Growing up, Jesse had got mixed up in the wrong crowd and become a member of a Balmoral youth gang, but Ms Moimoi said her son was no longer involved and had been trying to figure out his future.

"He was actually in a pretty good place [before he died]."

He had recently completed an automotive course and was waiting to hear if he could sit an exam to be considered for Auckland University's Tertiary Foundation certificate programme.

Jesse grew up in his grandfather's home just off Balmoral Rd and attended local schools, played rugby and softball, and had many friends. "He wanted to be confident but at the same time he was still struggling with who he actually was and who he wanted to be," Ms Moimoi said.

This week friends and family - including an older brother, Vaughan, and younger siblings Josiah, 12, and Tonia, 8 - gathered in Balmoral wearing T-shirts dedicated to Jesse.

A slide-show featuring photographs of Jesse at a family wedding, his 17th birthday and at the beach was set to a rap song he had recorded with a friend.

"Ultimately, he would have loved to have been a rap star. He loved rap music and music in general," his mother said.

Auckland police want to hear from two people who were in the area at the time Jesse fell from the building.

One was a heavily built man aged in his 50s who was wearing a reflectorised jacket and walking through the Balmoral shops towards the city.

A police spokeswoman said the man was seen by a jogger who first notified police of Jesse's body on the road.

Police want to know if the walker saw Jesse and ignored what he saw or whether Jesse fell after the man passed below the building.

A tanker driver stopped and walked back to the scene.

The men can contact Scott Rees at the Avondale police station.