Gardaí await postmortem results on grandfather stabbed to death

A man has been arrested after barricading himself into a house in north Co Dublin following a knife attack in which another man died.

The victim, named locally as 55-year-old Michael Gannon, was stabbed on the doorstep of a house in Mourne Park in Skerries, at about 6pm yesterday. The victim and the arrested man were well known to each other and the motive for the attack is unknown.

The victim, from Finglas, was attacked as he visited his daughter’s home to care for her two young children, who were in the house at the time.

He was found fatally wounded when gardaí went to the house after receiving calls of a serious disturbance at the house.

When gardaí from Balbriggan arrived at the scene, the suspect, a local man in his 20s, had left the house where the killing took place.

Gardaí quickly established he had gone to a house close by and had barricaded himself in. After a brief stand-off, he came out of the house and was arrested.

He was detained under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act and has been taken to Ballymun Garda station for questioning.

Both the victim and the suspect are from the area and have known each other for many years, but were not related.

The property where the killing occurred is due to be forensically examined by members of the Garda Technical Bureau.

A number of local people who are believed to have heard noise coming from the house at the time of the killing have been spoken to by gardaí.

Gardaí said they expect the investigation to be upgraded to a murder inquiry when the results of the postmortem become available, most likely today.