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A young man killed in a central Hamilton fight while celebrating his upcoming 21st birthday has been named by police.

Tyreece Te Pairi died in hospital early Sunday, with police investigating his death as a homicide. No arrests have been made.

The 20-year-old had earlier been involved in a violent incident in Alexandra St just after midnight, and which occurred while Te Pairi was out with family to mark his upcoming birthday.

The milestone was also to be celebrated with a family trip to Rarotonga yesterday, his grandmother wrote on social media.

“Love you moko...how unfair you were taken...watch over mum and dad,” she said, in a series of social media tributes.

“My grandson, he needs justice,” the grieving grandmother told the Herald.

Detective Inspector Daryl Smith said police were providing support to Te Pairi’s family as they come to terms with this tragedy and prepare to farewell him.

“The investigation team is continuing to assess every line of enquiry available to us. We want to hold the offenders accountable for their actions and hope the public can assist us.”

He asked for anyone who was in the area around Alexandra Street, between 11.30pm on Saturday to 12.30am on Sunday to contact police.

Police responded to an altercation involving two groups on Sunday about 12.10am on Alexandra St in central Hamilton, said Detective Sergeant Reece Durston, who is the area manager for investigations.

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Three others were also hurt in the incident, but have since been discharged from hospital.

A person dressed in white and holding a 15 to 18 inch machete blade was seen on CCTV cameras owned by Lawrenson Group CEO and central Hamilton bar owner John Lawrenson.

While the scuffle between two groups of people didn’t occur on his premises, some of his CCTV cameras showed people running to Alexandra St, where the violence later erupted, Lawrenson said.

“[The machete being held] was enormous, it would definitely take an arm off.”

He’d also seen CCTV of a woman trying to help the victim, who was lying on the pavement after the incident, Lawrenson said.

Police want to hear from anyone with cell phone or dashcam footage of the violence.

They were speaking to a number of witnesses and people involved in the altercation, police said yesterday.

“We are [also] making a number of enquiries to locate the offender and the weapon or weapons that were used.

“There is still a lot of work ahead of us to understand the full circumstances of what occurred, but the investigation team is committed to piecing the many fragments together.”