GARDAÍ IN Cork are investigating whether a 37-year-old man tried to force armed officers to shoot him dead.
The man hijacked an SUV at Cork Airport on Sunday evening and tried to ram an aircraft. It is understood he told gardaí he was planning “a suicide by cops” when he tried to strike the aircraft and later ran at armed officers with a 12-inch kitchen knife.
Gardaí extended his period of detention yesterday. The airport confirmed it would carry out a security review after the man crashed through the perimeter fence in a stolen Garda SUV before hijacking a fire service vehicle.
The man had been brought by gardaí to Cork University Hospital (CUH) at about 8pm on Sunday. He was psychiatrically assessed by doctors who deemed him fit to be interviewed by gardaí. He was discharged into Garda custody shortly after 4am yesterday.
The man was brought back to Togher Garda station where he was questioned throughout yesterday by detectives who are awaiting toxicology tests undertaken at CUH in the belief the man may have been under the influence of drugs at the time.
The man, originally from Cork city, was known to gardaí and has a conviction for possession of drugs for sale or supply. He is also facing charges in relation to a large drugs seizure in 2009.
Garda technical experts have begun forensically examining the knife. According to Garda sources, a number of armed detectives were preparing to fire at the man with handguns when two members of the regional support team got behind the suspect and immobilised him with two discharges from their Taser guns.
Gardaí also recovered a rucksack of knives from the hijacked SUV. These were being examined yesterday as were both the hijacked airport fire service and stolen Garda Traffic Corps vehicles the man took earlier.
The dramatic sequence of events began at about 4.30pm on Sunday when the man approached a Garda Traffic Corps SUV stopped in traffic outside Dunnes Stores on Patrick Street in Cork city centre. He jumped in and threatened a garda with a 12-inch kitchen knife.
He slashed the garda from ear to mouth and down to his neck before forcing him from the vehicle and driving down pedestrianised Winthop Street and Oliver Plunkett Street, forcing people to flee, before heading for the airport.
More than a dozen Garda cars responded and attempted to cut off the man’s escape route after he drove on to the runway. There, after the stolen Garda SUV stalled, he approached a fire service SUV and threatened airport policemen.
It is understood he lunged at one airport policeman with the knife but the officer was wearing a protective jacket which saved him. The suspect warned the second airport police man to back off, saying he also had a gun.
He later rammed an unmarked detective car, injuring an officer in the rear of the vehicle. He sped around the airport for about 10 minutes before coming to a halt when he crashed into a luggage truck bringing bags to an Aer Lingus flight bound for Amsterdam.