Gardaí were last night questioning a 21-year-old man about the death from stab wounds of a teenage father in the Tallaght area of Dublin in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Jamie Keogh (17) died following a fracas on Donomore Avenue in the Killinarden estate, close to the house where he grew up.
Yesterday afternoon four bouquets of flowers and a teddy bear marked the site where the youth collapsed after he was stabbed on his left side.
The flowers were left by his family and his girlfriend, who is pregnant with his second child.
The couple have an 18-month- old son but did not live together. The stabbing occurred during a fight involving Mr Keogh and up to 15 others just after 2 a.m. yesterday.
The scene, which was cordoned off, was examined by members of the Garda Technical Bureau yesterday while gardaí made house-to-house inquiries in an attempt to piece together the events that lead to the stabbing.
The row in which Mr Keogh was killed followed an earlier fight, also involving the teenager, at a party in a house on Donomore Avenue, a few hundred yards from where he was stabbed.
According to locals Mr Keogh seriously assaulted a man in his 40s at the party, and a fight broke out when other locals came to the aid of the older man.
The row, which moved outside on to the road, dissipated when gardaí were called to the scene. Mr Keogh, who was bleeding, ran off before gardaí could speak to him.
The older man, who sustained a broken nose and other injuries, was taken to hospital by ambulance.
An hour later the teenager returned to the party along with friends, and a fist fight broke out on Donomore Avenue again between some of the party guests, Mr Keogh and his friends. According to eyewitnesses the teenager had taken off his shirt during the row, although no knives were visible.
"He began to stumble, and he held himself up against the gate pillar and shouted 'I've been stabbed'," said one man who saw the fight.
Locals with first-aid knowledge tried to bandage the wound, a large deep cut on his left side, but he passed out and his body went into shock. He was taken by ambulance to the nearby Tallaght hospital but was dead on arrival.
The incident has shocked the community of Killinarden. Both the dead youth and his girlfriend have family throughout the area, as does the 21-year-old who was arrested yesterday.