THE LOCAL COMMUNITY in a Dublin city centre flat complex began slowly learning this morning that their home was the scene of the latest feud-related gangland shooting.
The victim’s body was discovered at about 10am this morning after gardai were called to an underground car park at the Sheridan Court flat complex off Dorset St.
The man suffered a number of gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The exact time the man was killed was unknown this morning but it is understood that his body was discovered by a caretaker.
Many residents coming and going only discovered the news as they came upon a cordoned off scene that was crowded by gardaí and reporters
Later, garda technical teams dressed in white overalls entered the car park before the body was removed.
Earlier this morning at about 7.55am, a car bearing false number plates was discovered on fire in a laneway off Clonliffe Avenue.
The grey Opel Astra is being treated as part of the investigation into the shooting and is believed to have been stolen in April.
Victim
The victim’s identity has not been officially confirmed but it is believed that he was associated with an individual who is wanted in relation to the 2016 murder of Gareth Hutch.
This latest slaying is therefore being treated as potentially the 12th killing in the ongoing Hutch-Kinahan feud.
One local described the victim as a “good man” who was not involved with drugs and who enjoyed going to the gym.
Speaking today outside the flat complex and across from a local school, Independent Councillor Christy Burke appealed for both sides to end the bloodshed.
“My thoughts and sadness are with the families and I’d appeal for no retaliation. And I would appeal to both sides, please, please come to the table,” Burke told reporters.
There are people willing to negotiate, professional people. I was only asked last weekend to try and make contact and approaches. Not for me to negotiate but professional negotiators, trustworthy men and women who would be acceptable to all walks of life.
Burke went on to say that the Sheridan Court flat complex is one of the friendliest and most peaceful complexes in Dublin and that locals are shocked by what has happened in their community.
The councillor says that he joins homeless teams who feed homeless people in the city and that there’s one homeless man who sleeps rough in the complex and is helped by the locals.
“I think the most that I ever heard happen here was a single guy living in the ground floor having a hooly or a Lannigan’s Ball of a party and that’d be it. Nothing else, ever,” Burke said.
If I heard there was a vacancy there I’d have 20 people on to me looking for it, that’s how good it is. That’s a fact.
Another woman who lives nearby, but who grew up in the complex, also says the flats are among the quietest in the city.
She adds that shootings have become an all-to-regular occurrence in the area but that they still cause shock and a growing frustration among those who are living there.
“We’re sort of used to it but we’re still in shock ’cause there’s shootings everywhere,” she says.
I’m down in Gardiner Street so I’m used to the shootings in the area but to come up to an area where I’m from, and it’s the quietest block of flats in the city, and there’s never any trouble in these flats. And to come up here to see your father and then seeing someone’s after being shot. It’s disgraceful.
The woman also points to the schoolyard wall across the road as she adds that the worst thing for her is the environment the shootings create for children in the area.
“It’s scandalous with kids living in the back of the apartments and all, and the kids living in the flats and all watching this. With a school right across from where all the forensics are and the press and everything.”
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