A forty-two-year old local man is expected to appear in court in Derry this morning charged with the murder of Mr James Joseph McGinley. Known as Dee Dee, Mr McGinley died after he was stabbed once in the chest in Derry city centre on Saturday morning.
The victim, who was the 85th person to have been stabbed in Derry this year, was a 23-year- old father of a one-year-old boy.
He died at the scene of the stabbing, at the junction of Little James Street and Sackville Street, following a fracas involving three other people.
It also emerged following Mr McGinley's death that the only ambulance available to transport him to hospital in Derry was in Enniskillen, 75 miles away.
Mr McGinley was taken to hospital in a police car.
Two weeks ago a cousin of Mr McGinley, who lived in the Carnhill area of Derry, died in a two-car road traffic accident at Burt in Co Donegal.
Also taken to hospital following Mr McGinley's murder was a woman police constable who was struck on the head with a bottle as she attempted to render first aid to the fatally wounded victim.
The constable, who was concussed, had several stitches inserted in a head wound after the incident.
Later on Saturday afternoon as police forensic officers continued to carry out a search of the scene where the murder occurred, another police constable was also struck on the head with an empty beer bottle.
"Both these attacks on the constables were dreadful given the circumstances in which they happened, but I am happy to say that the vast majority of the members of the public at the scene were more than helpful to us,"said Det Insp Robbie Paul, who is leading the PSNI's murder investigation into Mr McGinley's death.