A murder investigation is underway after a 34-year-old Nigerian man identified as Quam Babatunde, was stabbed to death in Dublin, Ireland.
The incident happened in Dublin city centre on South Anne Street around 3am on Saturday, February 15, 2025.
Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, who confirmed the nationality of the victim, said that violence on the streets of Dublin is “not acceptable”.
Speaking on This Week with Justin McCarthy on RTÉ, O’Callaghan said that he didn’t want to go into detail on the man as he has not been publicly identified.
“I’m sure efforts are being made to try to inform his family of the catastrophic consequences that happened to him in the early hours of Saturday morning,” he said.
The victim, said to be an asylum seeker, is understood to have been socializing earlier at a concert before the incident.
Gardaí were called to the incident in South Anne Street / Duke Lane Upper just after 3am on Saturday morning. A man was found there with serious injuries and unresponsive.
He was treated at the scene by emergency services personnel and transferred to hospital where he was pronounced deceased a short time later.
The stabbing was in the midst of a large-scale public order incident that is understood to have taken place between two groups of people who had been out socializing at a venue before violence spilled out onto the street.
Gardaí are examining CCTV footage and social media videos.
A second man is currently in the hospital being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Purported footage of the incident has been widespread on social media. One video, which has been shared widely, shows a large group of people present on the street. One man is visibly armed with a knife.
When asked if he had seen the video in question, O’Callaghan confirmed that he had.
“It is shocking footage, and the individual carrying the knife and the other individuals there with him, involved in the violence, need to know that A Garda Síochána are making very good progress in terms of identifying them,” the Justice Minister said.
“I also want to put out a message that carrying knives and acts of violence on the street are not acceptable in Ireland, and nor will they ever be acceptable.”
He also added that gardaí need better technology, including facial recognition, to be able to carry out their work more effectively.
“Facial recognition technology would be of great assistance to the gardaí and would speed up the process of investigation, and that’s why I’m hoping the opposition parties will support that legislation when I bring it into the Dáil.”