Off-duty garda threatened after foiling robbery

An off-duty garda had a gun pointed at his head and was threatened as he foiled a robbery of a corner shop in south Dublin.

In a separate incident, gardaí arrested a man for his alleged involvement in stabbing two gardaí last Thursday week at Dublin City Council civic offices.

In the robbery on Thursday evening, an off-duty garda had chased two shop raiders and wrestled one to the ground.

The garda was on his way to work in a car at around 6.45pm when he spotted two men wearing hoodies and ski masks going into a shop on Lower Mount Pleasant Avenue in Ranelagh.

He rang nearby Rathmines Garda Station and informed them before stopping his car. He followed the raiders into Cullen’s shop, located near Corrigan’s Pub.

One of the robbers was at an entry door, while the other was inside brandishing a firearm and ordering an assistant, aged 62, to hand over cash.

“The member wrestled a man to the ground and pulled his mask off and identified himself as a garda,” said a Garda source.

“The other guy pointed a gun at his head and said ‘let him go or I’ll blow your brains out’.”

The source said that there was a lot of pulling and shoving and thetwo raiders fled in the direction of Mount Pleasant Square, pursued by the garda.

The gunman threw away his firearm, but only before the garda chased and brought him down, until gardaí arrived. The second man escaped but was arrested later at 11.30pm.

One of the men was aged in his 20s while the second was a juvenile. One has an address in Rathmines and the other in Crumlin.

The garda sustained minor wounds and was treated in hospital, but later discharged.

Both are being questioned under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

The firearm turned out to be an imitation weapon.

It was one of three robberies in the Dublin south division on Thursday. In a second robbery, a taxi driver took a fare from the quays and had been requested to drive to Crumlin, where he was told to drive into a petrol station.

The passenger took out a weapon and demanded cash from the driver, before escaping on foot. He was later spotted in Crumlin Shopping Centre by gardaí from the adjacent Sundrive Road Garda Station.

In a third incident, a youth was robbed and had his mobile phone taken by a gang in Tallaght.

Gardaí yesterday also released details in relation to a knife attack on two gardaí from an attacker in the civic offices of Dublin City Council on May 15.

A spokesman said the two officers received “minor stab wounds” during the altercation with the man, inside the offices on Wood Quay.

The two gardaí, based at Kevin Street station, were hospitalised but discharged a short time later.

The spokesman said that the man arrested was released and that a file would be prepared for the DPP.