The marks of a concentrated number of gunshot pellets can be seen in the ‘o’ of the Tesco sign at Fairgreen Shopping Centre in Co Carlow.
Outside the premises, two bunches of flowers have been laid close to where gunman Evan Fitzgerald died on Sunday evening.
The busy centre was the scene of chaos and fear, when at 6.15pm, as shoppers filled their trolleys for the week ahead, the 22-year-old, from Kiltegan, Co Wicklow, entered carrying a shotgun.
He discharged shots into the air a number of times, causing shoppers to flee. Outside the building, he fatally wounded himself after being challenged by gardaí. No one else was shot during the incident.
On Wednesday, Geraldine Nolan (64), who regularly shops at the Tesco, sat in a coffee shop in the centre with her five-month-old grandson on her lap.
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She was “shocked” by the “terrible” events that occurred here days earlier, she said.
She is mindful of the effect witnessing the shooting will have on people working in the centre at the time and glad workers and customers were not seriously injured.
Her thoughts too are with the deceased, she said : “It’s hard on his family too.”
Her daughter Vanessa (33) is also coming to terms with the shock of what occurred in their locality. “You don’t expect something like that to happen in a small town. It’s not something that’s normalised,” she said.
John Brophy, manager of the centre, said uncertainty pervaded in the aftermath of the shooting and it was “very hard to know what was going on”.
However, gardaí, fire services and bomb squad were “exemplary in the way they conducted themselves over the couple of days”, he added. At the time of the incident, Tesco was the only shop still open in the centre, he said.
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He is mindful that security staff, Tesco employees and customers witnessed the shooting. The deceased young man and his family are also in his thoughts, and he is keen that they are “respected”, he said.
Counselling is being provided to the Tesco employees and the centre’s security staff. In Carlow town’s Primary Care Centre, the Health Service (HSE) has implemented a counselling service for the public to avail of in the aftermath of the event.
A HSE representative said the service has been “busy”.
