Gardai besieged a house in Finglas, Dublin, for four hours yesterday morning. Just before 7.30 a.m. detectives from the Bridewell Garda station surrounded a house on Ratoath Drive as part of an operation to arrest a man in connection with the death of a security guard at the Law Library in Dublin earlier this year.
They quickly arrested a 19-year-old man. But a second 22-year-old man resisted arrest and fled to the attic, barricading himself inside. After breaking through on to the roof, the man, wearing only a T-shirt and boxer shorts, threw slates at the gardai below. He sat at the apex of the roof and stared straight ahead for almost four hours as gardai and media looked on.
The area was sealed off and the Emergency Response Unit was called in. Gardai attempted to negotiate with the man all morning. At around 11.20 a.m. Mr Michael Staines, a solicitor, arrived on the scene. It is uncertain whether the man or a member of his family rang the solicitor. Five minutes later the man voluntarily came down from the roof. No one was injured in the standoff.
The man is being detained in the Bridewell Garda station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act which allows imprisonment without charge for 12 hours.