A 15-year-old Dublin youth is expected to face charges relating to the deaths of the Garda Tony Tighe and Garda Michael Padden in the so-called "joyriding" incident on the Stillorgan dual carriageway on Sunday morning.
The youth was released from St James's Hospital yesterday morning to Blackrock Garda station where the investigation into the incident is being led. He was arrested under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act which allows his detention for up to 12 hours.
The other youth in the car, a 16-year-old, is still in hospital receiving treatment for a knee injury. It is expected he will be well enough to be released by the weekend and will also be arrested and questioned and is also expected to face charges.
The 15-year-old south inner city youth who was arrested and questioned yesterday is understood to have been the driver of the stolen Mazda MX sports car which struck Garda Tighe and Garda Padden's car as the two officers tried to clear other cars from the path of the speeding car. Analysis of the damage to the cars has suggested that the stolen car might have been travelling at 120 miles per hour when it ploughed into the side of the Garda car.
The youth could face charges of dangerous driving causing death, speeding, breaking and entering and the unauthorised taking of a car.
Garda Padden, who was in the passenger seat, died instantly. Garda Tighe died shortly afterwards.
Detectives investigating the case are understood to have identified all eight members of the gang from the south inner city which was involved in a spate of break-ins and car thefts in south Co Dublin in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Aside from the two who were in the stolen sports car, a third youth was caught while travelling in another stolen car in the Rialto area on Sunday morning. He has already been charged with the unauthorised taking of the car.
The gang stole two other cars in south Dublin and drove them back to the south inner city. They stripped them of their wheels, music systems and other sellable parts before burning them out in Fumbally Lane, off Clanbrassil Street.
Gardaí say the gang has a long history of burglary, car theft and consistent and dangerous "joyriding" of stolen cars.
On Sunday morning, the gang stole two cars in the Dublin 2 area and drove out to Dalkey where they broke into a number of houses and apartments, taking car keys and driving back into Dublin in four cars.
Garda sources say the gang is one of a number which has been carrying out late-night raids across the south of County Dublin in the past year.
The two youths involved in the collision were saved from serious injury because their air-bags inflated on impact and the car careered further down the dual carriageway without striking any other object. Both were said to have acted aggressively while in St James's Hospital and caused considerable disruption.