A 51-year-old man has died from injuries in hospital following an incident with gardaí. Fiosrú, the police ombudsman, has started a criminal investigation into the incident under powers granted to it by legislation passed last year.
Fiosrú has also been liaising with the Dublin City Coroner and the Office of the State Pathologist in relation to a post-mortem examination.
The man became involved in an incident with gardaí outside the Holiday Inn on O’Connell Street last Friday.
It happened at around 4.15am and was captured on CCTV. The exact nature of the incident is not clear.
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It is understood gardaí observed the man in what they believed was a highly intoxicated state and while interacting with him, he fell to the ground and struck his head.
The Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024 is the legislation which allows Fiosrú to begin a criminal investigation into an incident.
The legislation compels the garda commissioner to refer events to Fiosrú “without delay” if a garda’s involvement might have led to death or serious harm of a person.
The referral of this incident was made by An Garda Síochána. A referral to the ombudsman does not necessarily mean a garda is accused of wrongdoing.
One of Fiosrú’s on-call team of investigators attended the scene.
Fiosrú, formerly known as the An Garda Síochána Ombudsman (Gsoc), said it wanted to hear from anyone who was near the Holiday Inn on O’Connell Street at about 4.15am on Friday.
That includes passing vehicles and taxis that may have dashcam or mobile phone footage from the area.
Fiosrú issued a statement thanking members of the public for providing information about the incident and added: “It is vital to the investigation that any persons who witnessed this serious incident contact Fiosrú.”
