February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Patrick Markey
A Dublin punk rock musician is recovering in a New York hospital after he was stabbed during an early morning scuffle in the Woodside area as he made his way home with his girlfriend.
Police are hunting for a blade-wielding attacker who stabbed 28-year-old Gary Keogh in the heavily Irish neighborhood after the victim and his girlfriend got into a fracas with three men on Monday morning.
Police said Keogh was stabbed once in the stomach at around 4:50 a.m. Monday on 61st Street and 40th Avenue near the popular strip of Irish pubs and bars.
Keogh and his female companion, Carol Barnes, got into an argument with the three Hispanic men after they complained about the Irish couple being drunk and making too much noise on the street, according to police reports.
Reached at her Woodside home, Barnes said they had been coming home from a local bar when they were attacked outside her home.
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“We were just on our way home from the pub, we were rowdy and they started following us,” Barnes said. “I knew there was going to be trouble,” the 30-year-old waitress said.
The couple tried to get into their doorway, but found themselves trapped in the porch. Keogh was standing behind Barnes when he was struck.
“I turned around and he was stabbed. He was saying, ‘Look what he did.’ It wasn’t a robbery; it was totally unprovoked,” she said.
Cops arriving on the scene found Keogh bleeding on the sidewalk, but he could not respond to officers, police said.
Detectives are still investigating what type of implement was used to stab Keogh. No weapon was recovered at the scene. A search of the area yielded no results, but police said the three men fled along 61st Street.
Keogh, a bass guitarist with the Long Island punk rock band Jones Crusher, was taken to Elmhurst Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition after undergoing four hours of surgery, a hospital spokeswoman said.
On Tuesday morning he had been upgraded to fair and stable condition. Keogh’s parents were scheduled to fly out to New York from Dublin this week.
According to a website for Keogh’s band, he performed with the techno group Spacehopper before coming to the United States. He joined Jones Crusher about a year ago, said Sean Sanders, the band’s lead guitarist.
Police investigating the case are asking for the Woodside residents to contact the 108th Precinct Detectives Squad with any information at (718) 784-5441.