Death linked to victim’s row with another family
The victim, 23-year-old Sam Smith, was shot in the stomach and the arm when he answered a knock at the door of his sister’s home in Carroll Drive, Cranmore Estate at around 11.30pm.
He was shot through the glass and as he lay wounded, his attacker fled the scene through an alleyway in the estate. Mr Smith was rushed to Sligo General Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. He died shortly after 6pm on Saturday. Gardaí carried out a forensic examination of the scene and on Saturday evening, following Mr Smith’s death, they upgraded their investigation to a murder inquiry. It is believed the shooting may be linked to an alleged argument between the victim and another family in Sligo before Christmas. Mr Smith is a member of a large, well-known family in the area. Separately, gardaí are investigating an incident in Limerick during which a number of people received stab wounds, bringing to six the total number of knife attacks over the New Year.
Five Lithuanians were injured in the Limerick incident, one seriously. Gardaí on routine patrol in the Newcastlewest area discovered a man lying on St Mary’s Road shortly before 2.30am on New Year’s Day.
He had suffered serious stab wounds and was taken to Limerick Regional Hospital. It emerged four other men had also suffered stab wounds. Four men were treated in hospital for minor injuries and two of the stabbing victims were subsequently discharged. It is believed the men are all in their 20s. An investigation into the attacks is underway. No-one has been arrested yet as a result of the incident.
In Dublin, a man was taken to the Mater Hospital in a critical condition after being stabbed at a hotel near Croke Park in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
The 21-year-old man, from Clondalkin, Dublin, was removed from a corridor of Jury’s Croke Park Hotel on Jones’ Road and taken to hospital at around 4am.
A spokesperson for the hotel said the man “was a resident guest of the hotel”. Gardaí are investigating the stabbing.
Hospital A&E units were relatively busy during the New Year celebrations.
Beaumont Hospital said 188 people attended the A&E between 4pm on New Year’s Eve and 4am on New Year’s Day.
A hospital spokeswoman said around 30% of these attendances were the result of drink-related assaults.
Cork University Hospital recorded 160 attendances on New Year’s Eve. By 10am on New Year’s Day, 10 people had been admitted as a result of drink-related injuries. A spokesperson for the hospital said it was not possible to say how many of the 160 people requiring treatment had suffered drink-related injuries, some may have been discharged before 10am and others did not require admission.
In Dublin’s Mater Hospital 20 people were treated in A&E on New Year’s Eve, the majority of whose injuries were drink-related.
