By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA
The Minister for Justice has said a random knife attack in a Dublin neighbourhood on Sunday could have involved a fatality had the gardaí not responded quickly.
Three men were injured in what the minister called a “random” knife attack in Stoneybatter on Sunday afternoon.
A man aged in his 20s was arrested at the scene and the “serious incident” triggered a large policing response, including from the Public Order Unit.
Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said that had the gardaí not arrived at the scene “extremely fast”, the situation “could have been a lot worse”.
“We could have been sitting here talking about more serious injuries against a greater number of people or we could have, I regret to say, been talking about fatalities had the gardai not arrived promptly.”
He said it was a “horrific” incident for the men who were injured and “shocking” for the community, and that one of the injured men is a brother of one of his friends.
“His brother was coming out of the house and the man came up behind him and slashed him in the back of the neck,” he told RTÉ Radio.
“I want to commend the gardai and particularly the guard who arrived there first who apprehended and disarmed the individual concerned, but also the gardai got there very quickly and had they not, I fear we could have been talking about something much worse this morning, rather than the three serious injuries that took place.”
He added: “What the gardai were indicating to me was that these were random attacks, I don’t think they had been aware of the individual before, there had been no history I think of violent attacks before by the individual.
“What appeared to happen was the individual went along the streets, the three locations were Oxmantown Road, Carnew Street and Niall Street, and the three men who were attacked were just unfortunately in a position where the person was passing by at the time.”
Mr O’Callaghan said the arrested man is understood to be homeless but had not sought or been granted asylum in Ireland.
“The individual appears to have been homeless, South American, hadn’t really been brought to the attention of the gardaÍ before.”
He added: “Although it’s not unprecedented, attacks like this are highly unusual, and again, I just want to say in terms of a policing plan, the policing plan that was in place worked well.
“The gardaÍ got there rapidly, they apprehended the individual, there is a suspect in custody and I hope to see an individual brought before the courts and justice being done.
“It is extremely difficult for the gardaí or for society to ensure or to prevent attacks like this happening if an individual who isn’t being monitored comes out and just arbitrarily decides he’s going to attack the three closest people he meets as he’s walking down the street.”
