The victim, Brian Anthony Liston, 51, a primary school teacher at Strathfield South Public School, is not believed to have known William Rodney Cahill, the man accused of murdering him. Pete Smith used a baseball bat to subdue a man who allegedly stabbed another man waiting for a bus in Camperdown. Credit:Nine News The attack occurred on the corner of Salisbury Road and Church Street in Camperdown just after 9pm on Thursday. Mr Liston is believed to have been waiting for a bus to his home in Earlwood when he was stabbed repeatedly. One police source said he was simply "in the wrong place at the wrong time".

Police and paramedics arrived at the intersection, which is not far from the University of Sydney and several blocks from King Street in Newtown, to find Mr Liston lying on the road with multiple stab wounds. He was bleeding heavily from his face and chest, witnesses said. The scene in Camperdown where a man was stabbed to death while waiting for a bus. Credit:Channel Seven Paramedics took him to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, which is 500 metres from the bus stop, but he died a short time later. One witness said he had heard him screaming for his life, saying "He's going to stab me to death!" A note placed at the Camperdown bus stop by local resident, David. Credit:Andrew Baker

Mr Smith, who lives on Church Street, said his daughter Melissa, 19, heard the screams and ran towards the injured man as he was lying on the street. "She runs out, runs down the road and a bloke's been stabbed on the road. She goes to his rescue, and the offender chased her," Mr Smith said. Mr Smith said he armed himself with a baseball bat and helped to subdue the alleged offender, . "I made him drop the knife. Then I got them to bring him down and sit him in front of the green building just there, under the light where I could see him. "He chased my daughter; he's lucky I didn't do something there and then, only I held myself back."

Melissa said she had been watching television when she heard screams for help. She ran outside, thinking that someone may have been struck by a car. "I ran to the corner and I just saw a man lying on the road with blood all over him and he was holding his neck," Melissa told Fairfax Media. She said she ran towards the injured man to help him, and was within about five steps of the alleged offender when he lunged at her with a knife. After the alleged offender was on the ground, Melissa said "the bloke didn't say anything at all. He was just mute." Note left at scene

A man who claimed to have witnessed the death left a poignant note and flowers at the scene on Friday. "To the guy who was murdered here yesterday and whom I watched die - I'm so sorry we couldn't do more to help you," the note read. "Nobody deserves this. May you rest in peace." The note was signed "Dave + everyone else", and a postscript thanked the paramedics and police. Screaming heard

Michael Short said he had just arrived home with his family and was unpacking groceries from his car when he heard screaming and yelling. "It sounded like an argument was brewing. The intensity of the argument rose really quickly and soon it involved screaming by a number of people," he said. When he went out to the street, he saw the victim on the ground "in a very bad way". "We tried to help him by stemming the blood flow from his chest until the police arrived. I recall he was still breathing but it was shallow," he said. A few minutes later, the man stopped breathing, he said.

Another resident, Emma, told Fairfax Media her neighbour was in the garage of their apartment block when he heard someone yelling, "Help! Help! Help!" "He ran to the side door and opened it, and the guy with the knife just started running towards him. He [the neighbour] slammed the door in his face," said Emma, who did not want her surname used. She said her neighbour was shocked and could barely speak when he came back upstairs. Emma said a woman then ran up the street, yelling, "Dad, dad, grab the bat!" Emma said her boyfriend was overseas, and she had been concerned about his safety while he was travelling.

"I was so worried about him travelling, with everything that's going on in the world, and then this happened right beside us. I was walking right past there half an hour before that. It's so crazy," she said. The stabbing occurred at a bus stop on the 412 route. The 412 bus passes through Earlwood, where police believe the dead man lived, and a bus was due to arrive at the stop at 9.25pm on Thursday. Mr Cahill was charged overnight with one count of murder and two counts of being armed with intent to commit a serious indictable offence. He was refused bail in Newtown Local Court on Friday after he tried to climb out of the dock. School saddened

A spokesperson for the NSW Department of Education said the Strathfield South Public School community was deeply saddened by Mr Liston's death. "He was a popular staff member and much loved by the school community," the department said in a statement. "The school and department's thoughts are with his family and friends." With Michael Koziol

