IF Tommy Jenkins had known the bleeding man whose life he tried to save was a robber, he said he would have "kept walking"

The 83-year-old man was walking home on Tuesday afternoon, when he found Azzam Naboulsi, 30, dying in the gutter.

Police have said Naboulis was dumped there after robbing the home of Yagoona man Donald Brooke, where he was allegedly stabbed twice.

Thinking the man had been hit by a car, or bashed and robbed himself, Mr Jenkins called Triple-0, then sat with Naboulsi and talked to him until the paramedics arrived.

Now, he wishes he hadn't been so kind.

"If I'd known he was a crim and he had just robbed a bloke, I would have put another knife in and finished him off myself," Mr Jenkins said.

While Mr Jenkins was with Naboulsi, he watched as the dying man's eyes rolled back in his head, but tried to encourage him to fight.

"I was slapping him around saying "Come on you, you're too young to die yet"," he said.

"Now I wish I'd just kept walking."

An adamant Mr Jenkins said he felt ashamed he had helped a man who had just broken into a home, despite the fact he was a father who has left young children behind.

"I'm a father myself, that's not how you behave. That bloke is no good and we don't need them on our streets," he said.

Originally published as 'I would have put knife in robber too'