Gardaí are to recommend that a bystander who stabbed a man to death minutes after he robbed a Dublin shop be charged with murder.

The incident occurred last Wednesday evening outside SuperValu in Killester when 23-year-old Paul Howe entered the premises and threatened a female employee with a knife before fleeing with €3,000.

The eastern European security guard on duty chased Howe and caught up with him.

Howe received a number of blows and was restrained in anticipation of the arrival of gardaí. However, a group of young men who had been outside the shop heard of what had happened. They arrived and saw the thief being held down.

One of the men, a 19-year-old from Darndale, took Howe's knife from him and stabbed him three times. He died 20 minutes later. After the incident the man went back to the shop and handed the knife to another person, asking him to hold it for him.

The man who carried out the attack was a friend of one of the girls who worked at the shop. He is well known to gardaí as a drug dealer and car thief and has 18 convictions.

The security guard and the Darndale man were immediately arrested but were released without charge the following day.

Sources say there is a chance the security guard will be charged with assault but say it is almost certain the 19-year-old will be charged with murder.

A senior garda investigating the case said: "The security guard was only doing his job and held Howe down after a brief struggle. That would have been the end of it but when the other lad appeared on the scene and stabbed him that went way too far."

Howe was known as a petty criminal. He was in court last Wednesday for stealing a condom machine from a pub and had previous convictions for road traffic offences.

Meanwhile, a 28-year-old man appeared before Dublin district court yesterday charged in connection with the raid at SuperValu and robbery of €3,000.

The court heard the man was arrested on Thursday night after turning himself in.