Gardaí move closer to catching killer after noisy party row

GARDAÍ are confident of catching the man who pursued and fatally stabbed a Good Samaritan who was helping a friend tormented by noisy neighbours.

Detectives are identifying and talking to people with information about the murder, before they arrest the killer.

The killing of Warren O’Connor, aged 24, has traumatised his partner and family and has shocked the neighbouring communities of Coolock and Donaghmede.

The attack is all the more disturbing as his pursuers rammed the car he was driving, which was carrying a mother-to-be and a three-year-old child.

His murder was one of three violent deaths over last weekend, including a fatal gun attack on another man in Coolock on Saturday night.

Mr O’Connor went to The Beech apartment building at the Grattan Woods complex in Donaghmede after receiving a call from a friend there for help.

His friend, his pregnant partner and their three-year-old child, were having problems with a noisy party upstairs. They had tried to get the people to keep it down but were told to “f**k off”.

They rang Mr O’Connor and two other friends, and they went to the apartment.

Garda sources said there was an altercation there, during which people at the party threatened to “sort them out” and a female occupant made a reference to using a knife on them.

Gardaí said Mr O’Connor and the others left the building, but were followed by their attackers and there was another altercation outside the building.

Mr O’Connor took his friend, her pregnant partner and their child by car and were pursued by the three attackers. Gardaí said the attackers “rammed them” a number of times, forcing them to stop.

Mr O’Connor’s brother, Keith, was reported yesterday as saying that his brother got out of the car.

“He said: ‘What the f**k are you doing? Can’t you see there is a child and a pregnant woman in the car’.”

But instead of stopping, they came for him with a knife, which they took from the kitchen of the apartment, and drove it into his chest. Gardaí said the handle broke off and the blade was left embedded in his chest.

Garda sources said they were making good progress. “We know where the original incident happened, we know who owns the flat, we know who owns the car that pursued them.”

Gardaí will track down those at the party, which include, according to sources, a number of “fairly serious criminals”.

They want to speak to the two people who were with the killer. When detectives have done all this, they will move to arrest the killer.

Meanwhile, gardaí in the same district are drawing up a list of suspects for the fatal shooting of Noel Deans in Coolock on Saturday night.

One garda source said the drug user and street dealer, with a record of violence, including against gardaí, had a “lot of enemies”, but was not a member of feuding gangs in the area.

“He’s been involved in a lot of fights and beatings and has done a few beatings. There’s a fair list of suspects. It’s going to be a difficult one,” he said.