“I didn’t have time to be afraid” says man who stopped Parnell Square attacker

The Deliveroo driver who stopped the knife attacker on Parnell Square on Thursday said “I didn’t have time to be afraid.”

Caio Benicio, originally from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, said he used his helmet to hit the man who stabbed three children and a female creche worker in Thursday’s attack.

In an interview with the Irish Independent, Benicio said “I have two kids myself and I didn’t have time to be afraid, I just acted.”

“I was working like a normal day, and I was passing by in Parnell Square. For me, at first, it looked like a fight, a normal fight. I slowed down my motorcycle and it was a man and a woman,” he said.

A number of by-standers, including Benicio, helped apprehend the man who carried out the attack on Thursday afternoon.

Describing the incident, he said the creche worker was “very very brave.”

“She was fighting for a girl, a little girl. I was like, ‘what’s happening here’ and then I saw him with a knife and he grabbed a little girl,” he recalled.

Benicio intervened, recalling “I stopped my bike and I don’t know, I acted by instinct…I took off my helmet and hit him with the helmet on the head.”

“He fell on the ground and then I hit him a couple of times and some other people started to come to keep him. After that, I went to see the girl.”

Benicio made a statement to the Gardaí following the incident, saying they “treated me very well.”

“They told me it was the scene of crime so I couldn’t get my bike and my helmet back because I had to wait a little bit.”

Benicio said he was working as a delivery driver in Ireland to support his family in Brazil, having moved to Ireland last year.

Discussing last night’s riots, he said the violence and chaos was “nonsense.”

“If it was against immigrant people, I am an immigrant myself and I helped people yesterday – for me, it was nonsense.”