This is the dramatic moment when Gardai take down and arrest a man after a teenager was stabbed.
Our video footage shows the drama that took place in front of horrified residents and late evening shoppers at Johnstown, on the outskirts of Navan county Meath yesterday at 6.45 pm
Footage shows four Garda cars and one van at the scene of what appears to be a fight between youths on a green area near Johnstown shopping centre.
One manages to escape the brawl and runs across a busy road but finds his exit blocked and turns to run back before being tackled to the pavement by a number of cops.
An onlooker can be heard to say, ‘Ha ha you’re caught now.’
Source have claimed the row is linked to the drugs trade in the Johnstown area,
One said, ‘ A new gang, of mainly foreign nationals are trying to muscle in and the crew who run the show at the moment are not happy.’
A Garda spokesman said, ‘Gardaà are investigating an incident of assault that occurred in Navan, Co Meath at approximately 6:45pm yesterday, Saturday, 22nd of April 2023.
‘One man aged in his late teens was conveyed to Our Lady’s Hospital Navan Hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.
‘No arrests have been made. Investigations are ongoing.’
The violence erupted at the end of a week in which Tommy Reilly a former Lord Mayor of the town called for the army to be brought in to patrol the towns streets due to serious anti social behaviour and lack of Garda numbers,
He claimed, ‘ It’s time to send in the soldiers, I don’t blame the guards who are here the problem is there are not enough of them.
‘I remember when there was a Paddywagon patrolling the streets of Navan at weekends, along with two guards in a squad cars and maybe four on the beat, now there are quite often just three cops on duty.
‘A couple of months ago there was a man stabbed to death in the town and there were only three guards working, there was another very serious assault that night and members had to be brought in from elsewhere to deal with that.
‘A shopkeeper was badly assaulted recently and I know of two instances where elderly couples were followed home to rural villages from Navan post office after collecting their pensions and on one of those occasions a handbag with a few weeks pension money in it was taken from a car.
‘They are targeting pensioners who travel in maybe once a month to collect their money, I know the guards regularly watch CCTV from the post office and see cars being followed, there are just not enough guards to do anything about it.
‘They actively target the older generation of people who withdraw money from ATM’s,I’m only touching on the surface of what is going on not exaggerating it.
