A man was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment after being shot and wounded in what appears to be a freak incident involving men out hunting and another party looking for golf balls at a Co Dublin golf club.
Gardaí suspect one of the hunting party saw movement in the dark late on Monday night and fired a shot at what he thought was an animal, but hit the injured man instead.
It appears the man who was wounded was with a second group of people who were looking for golf balls in or around a lake on Corrstown Golf Club in Kilsallaghan, north Co Dublin, close to the country boundary with Co Meath.
The injured man was wounded in the upper body and while he was expected to survive, he required intensive care treatment in Dublin’s Mater hospital after the incident at about 11pm. The men who were looking for golf balls in the lake in the environs of the golf club were wearing wetsuits, though it was unclear if they were diving, or wading, into the water at the time.
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The alarm was raised immediately the man was wounded, with gardaí and paramedics rushing to the scene, including some armed Garda members who initially believed they may be in pursuit of a gunman after a targeted shooting.
The man who is believed to have discharged the shot, and the others he was with, remained at the scene pending the arrival of the Garda. The firearm believed to have been discharged, which was legally held, has been taken for examination.
However, while a Garda inquiry into the shooting incident is under way from Swords Garda station, gardaí strongly suspect the incident was accidental. The man believed to have fired the shot and the wounded man were not known to each other.
In reply to queries, Garda Headquarters, in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, confirmed the incident was being examined.
“Gardaí are making enquiries into the discharge of a firearm which occurred near the Laurestown area of Dublin on Monday, 12th June 2023. The incident occurred shortly before 11pm,” it said.
“A man, aged in his 40s, was later taken to the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital for treatment of what are understood to be non-life threatening injuries.”
