By noon yesterday Bulli’s Gwyther Avenue had returned to normality after a night of uncharacteristic drama.
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Only the sounds of vacuuming and the giggles of children playing in a backyard echoed through the otherwise peaceful neighbourhood.
It was a scene far removed from the frenzy of activity that had unfolded just hours earlier.
As police attempted to arrest and handcuff a Wollongong man in a unit block car park on Thursday night, the 34-year-old stopped breathing.
Officers worked to revive the man and paramedics were called, but he was pronounced dead at Wollongong Hospital a short time later.
A critical incident team from the State Crime Command’s homicide squad is investigating the death, including the level of force used by the arresting officers.
Corey Hope, who lives next to the unit block, said he heard voices about 8pm on Thursday, which sounded like two men fighting.
‘‘I went out the back to have a look, it sounded like one guy trying to calm the other down, then it went quiet,’’ he said.
‘‘The bloke at one point was calling out to a girl up [in a second-floor unit].’’
About half an hour later, Mr Hope reported seeing about four ambulances and two police cars out the front.
‘‘We went out the back and a few neighbours came over at this stage. Looking over the fence into the car park we saw ambos working on the guy.
‘‘The ambos were trying to give him a heart massage, it was quite vigorous. That’s when I said no more boys, go inside.’’
He said police had been in the street, which is usually ‘‘a nice, quiet street’’, all night.
The drama had unfolded in a car park nestled between two blocks of units adjacent to Mr Hope’s backyard.
‘‘There was a ute parked there last night, I haven’t seen it before,’’ Mr Hope said.
‘‘It was all happening around the ute.’’
Another neighbour said she had been at work when the drama first unfolded but her husband had seen plainclothes police knock on the door of a female paramedic, who then ran over to the block of units.
Yesterday detectives canvassed the neighbourhood, speaking to residents about what they had seen and heard the night before.
At 9.30am a group of seven public order and riot squad officers arrived.
They carried out a sweep of the street, forming a line and walking up the road, checking bushes and under cars.
The specialist officers left the scene in two marked black four-wheel-drive vehicles about 10.40am.
At 11.20am officers removed a strip of police tape used to cordon off the unit block driveway.
Four detectives, the last police remaining at the scene, drove away in unmarked cars just before midday.
