Young man smelling of drugs walked around Limerick estate with a knife at night<\/a><\/p>\nGardai are investigating the shocking incident and have appealed for witnesses to an alleged incident of serious assault, which occurred in the Old Cratloe Road area of Limerick city on Saturday, March 28 at approximately 10.30am.<\/p>\n
\u201cA male, aged in his 30s sustained serious injuries. He subsequently received treatment at St John\u2019s Hospital, and University Hospital Limerick.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAny persons who were in Limerick city – in the vicinity of the Shannonvale estate, the Old Cratloe Road and Brookville Avenue – on Saturday, March 28, between 10am and 11am, who may have video footage (including dash-cam) are asked to make this footage available to investigating garda\u00ed,\u201d said a garda spokesperson.<\/p>\n
In particular, garda\u00ed are interested in anyone who may have interacted with or seen a VW Golf car travelling in the area at the time. Anyone with any information is asked to contact Mayorstone garda station on (061) 456980, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any garda station.<\/p>\n
Mr Omoteso writes in the Go Fund Me appeal that March 28 is \u201cthe day the world went dark\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the day I learned that the senseless violence you see in movies, the kind of nightmare you assume only happens to strangers, can hunt you down in your own neighbourhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were supposed to be celebrating. We had just finished packing the car, the seats heavy with gear and equipment for the fifth edition of our hip-hop and streetdance community festival in Limerick that I co-founded and had been working in across Ireland for over 12 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a day meant for music, DJ-ing, streetdance, movement, graffiti, art, unity and having fun for all regardless of race, religion, gender, age and ability. Instead, it became the end of life as I knew it,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Mr Omoteso said as he tried to leave his estate, a man sat waiting in a car at the exit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was parked carelessly, tyres on the footpath, trapping traffic and creating chaos in an already small space with road works. After a brief exchange of gesture, something snapped in him. He chose me.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe tailed me through the streets of Limerick, chasing me toward a well-known roundabout where he finally forced his way in front of me, swerving to cut off any hope of escape. I watched, paralysed, as he stepped out of his vehicle wielding a wooden bat,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n
Mr Omoteso said the man began to beat his car with a bat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThen he struck and shattered the driver\u2019s side window with the wooden bat which exploded shards of glass, like tiny knives, sprayed across my face and buried themselves deep into both of my eyes,” he claims.<\/p>\n
The street dancer said he is now facing a long, agonising road of surgeries just to cling to a fraction of the vision he once took for granted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe damage is not just physical, it is permanent. My iris was sliced in half and had to be meticulously stitched back together. I am battling an onset cataract and a ruptured lens capsule, both of which must be surgically removed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am currently facing the first of four major emergency operations. Even if every single procedure is a success, I will never see the world clearly again, which ultimately affects my job, work, dance, social interaction and confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIMERICK-BASED street dancer\u00a0Tobi Omoteso, well-known for hip-hop and break dancing, choreography and teaching, has been left blinded in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[45,93,61,60,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-390837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-limerick-city"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}