Assault charge after man dies on Queenstown street

A 34-year-old man charged with assault following the death of a man in Queenstown on Thursday night has been remanded in custody, after appearing in the Queenstown District Court yesterday.

The man was granted name suppression.

The victim has been named by police as Mark James Smith, a 46-year-old Queenstown man, who worked for an electrical company.

He was married with two children, aged 11 and 19.

A family spokesman said Mrs Smith did not want to comment.

Queenstown police are treating the incident as a homicide.

Mr Smith, who was found unconscious in the street near the corner of Camp St and Searle Lane, was believed to have been involved in an altercation near a taxi stand about 11.30pm.

Attempts by police, ambulance staff and members of the public to resuscitate the victim were unsuccessful.

Police Otago rural area commander Inspector Mike Cook said the accused was still at the scene when police arrived.

He had been co-operative.

"The man arrested has only been charged with assault.

Any further charges will depend on the postmortem and further investigation," he said.

"The two people involved were not the stereotypical young people on booze.

"It shows that alcohol affects all types of people."

Queenstown man Blair Pattinson, who arrived at the scene shortly after the incident, witnessed the attempts to revive the victim.

He said a female community guard was the first to do CPR until police took over.

Police are asking for witnesses.

"We know there were more people at the scene who we did not talk to, and we would like to hear from them," Senior Sergeant John Fookes said.

Insp Cook said police believed "at least one of the two men involved had been socialising at the Morrisons [Irish Pub] bar, so we would like to speak to anyone who could help us identify who was present".

Camp St was closed from Ballarat St to Church St until 4pm yesterday.

A 34-year-old United Kingdom-born man appeared in the Queenstown District Court yesterday charged with assault.

He was granted name suppression and remanded in custody until next Friday, when he will appear in the Invercargill District Court.

Witnesses can contact Queenstown police on a dedicated witness line: (03) 441 1629.