Pictured: Hero Brazilian Deliveroo driver who stopped Dublin knife attacker

James Cheng-Morris
·Freelance news writer, Yahoo UK
Updated ·4 min read
10
DUBLIN, IRELAND - NOVEMBER 24: Deliveroo driver Caio Benicio, who stopped a knife attacker outside a school, poses on November 24, 2023 in Dublin, Ireland. Vehicles were set alight and shops looted in Dublin last night, following a knife attack outside a school that left five people, including three children, injured. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
Deliveroo driver Caio Benicio stopped the knife attacker outside a school on Thursday. (Getty Images)

This is the hero Deliveroo driver who tackled the Dublin knife attacker on Thursday.

Caio Benicio had been on a job when he came across the scene - in which three children were stabbed - and intervened.

He smashed the attacker with his helmet.

Benicio told The Journal: “I didn’t even make a decision, it was pure instinct, and it was all over in seconds. He fell to the ground, I didn’t see where [the] knife went, and other people stepped in.

“I have two kids myself, so I had to do something. I did what anyone would do. People were there but they couldn’t step in because he was armed, but I knew I could use my helmet as a weapon.”

Micheal Martin, Ireland’s Tanaiste - deputy head of the government - said on Friday that the Brazilian rider’s part “should not be forgotten” and that he may have saved other children from being attacked.

“We had a horrific, violent attack on children and adults, we think of them, and we think of the Deliveroo person who came along to save the situation - perhaps for other children.”

DUBLIN, IRELAND - NOVEMBER 24: Deliveroo driver Caio Benicio, who stopped a knife attacker outside a school, poses on November 24, 2023 in Dublin, Ireland. Vehicles were set alight and shops looted in Dublin last night, following a knife attack outside a school that left five people, including three children, injured. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
Deliveroo driver Caio Benicio pictured in Dublin on Friday. (Getty Images)
The scene in Dublin city centre on Thursday after the knife attack on three schoolchildren and their care assistant. (PA)
The scene in Dublin city centre on Thursday after the knife attack on three schoolchildren and their care assistant. (PA)

Recommended reading

At about noon on Thursday, three children and a woman who was caring for them were stabbed close to Irish language medium primary school Gaelscoil Cholaiste Mhuire.

A five-year-old girl underwent emergency treatment for serious injuries.

The woman was also seriously injured while the two other children, a five-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl, suffered less serious injuries.

Garda, Ireland’s police force, said a man who sustained serious injuries at the scene is a person of interest in their investigation.

Initially, Garda said it was “satisfied there is no terrorist link” to the stabbings. But at an evening press conference, commissioner Drew Harris stopped short of definitively ruling out a terrorist motive.

TOPSHOT - Flames rise from a car and a bus, set alight at the junction of Bachelors Walk and the O'Connell Bridge, in Dublin on November 23, 2023, as people took to the streets in protest following the stabbings earlier in the day. Protesters in Dublin on Thursday torched a car and fought police, an AFP journalist reported, after three children were injured in a suspected school stabbing that social media rumours attributed to a foreign national. (Photo by Peter MURPHY / AFP) (Photo by PETER MURPHY/AFP via Getty Images)
Flames rise from a car and bus during the riots on Thursday night. (AFP via Getty Images)

There were chaotic scenes in the aftermath of the attack. Angry impromptu protests spiralled into a night of violence and disorder as buses, trams and at least one Garda vehicle were burned.

Meanwhile, shops were looted on one of Dublin’s most famous throughfares, O’Connell Street.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the rioters brought shame on Ireland and vowed to use the full force of the law against them.

Garda commissioner Drew Harris has blamed far-right “hooligans”. Thirty-four people were arrested.

Garda members were injured, one seriously, as 400 officers responded to the unrest.

Reflecting on the riots, Deliveroo rider Benicio also told The Journal: “It looks like they hate immigrants. Well I am an immigrant, and I did what I could to try and save that little girl.”

Watch: 34 arrests after rioting in Dublin following school knife attack

'Two terrible attacks'

Varadkar said Dublin had witnessed “two terrible attacks” on Thursday.

He said on Friday: “The first was an attack on innocent children, the second an attack on our society and the rule of law.

“Each attack brought shame to our society and disgrace to those involved and incredible pain to those caught up in the violence."

Thirty-two people were expected to appear in court in Dublin on Friday charged in connection with the violence.

Varadkar added: “Those involved brought shame on Dublin, brought shame on Ireland and brought shame on their families and themselves.

“These criminals did not do what they did because they love Ireland. They did not do what they did because they wanted to protect Irish people. They did not do it out of any sense of patriotism, however warped.

“They did so because they’re filled with hate, they love violence, they love chaos and they love causing pain to others.”