Crowd witnessed stabbing at Oliver Bond flats, say gardaí

A crowd of people were present at the Oliver Bond flats when Lorcan O'Reilly was stabbed on Halloween night, according to gardaí.

Investigating officers on Monday made a renewed appeal for information regarding an incident in which the 21-year-old was stabbed to death in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Mr O’Reilly sustained serious stab wounds sometime between 2am and 3am on November 1st, and was then taken to nearby St James’ Hospital for treatment but was later pronounced dead.

A postmortem has since been carried out, but gardaí have declined to comment on the details of the examination. An incident room has been established at Kevin Street Garda Station and police are continuing to conduct door-to-door enquiries in the area.

The victim was described by Supt Paddy McMenamin as “a very respectable, decent young man from a very respectable family, and the community and family are devastated by his tragic death.

“I would like to acknowledge the excellent co-operation and assistance we have received from the community of Oliver Bond in relation to this investigation, and I know that they have provided us with excellent information in this investigation,” he said.

“We do know there were others that were present and know what happened, or have information which will be vital to this investigation, and I am appealing to those people to come forward and to contact us.”

Supt McMenamin said close to 100 inquiries have already taken place, and confirmed that investigators are following up on suggestions that the assailant or assailants may have been known to Mr O’Reilly.

Speculation

He declined to comment on speculation that the dead man had attempted to intervene in a fight which had broken out in the early hours of Sunday morning, and did not provide confirmation as to whether CCTV was in operation in the area and during the time of the assault.

Supt McMenamin continued: "We have a team of detectives working on that investigation. We have the services of the Technical Bureau [and] State pathologist. A forensic examination has been conducted of the scene, and searches have been conducted of the scene.

“I am appealing to people to come and talk to us. We will treat all information received in the strictest confidence.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact gardaí at Kevin Street station, or to call the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111.

The attack was just one of half a dozen violent assaults that took place across the capital over the course of Halloween night, and two other men have been treated for serious injuries.