Barr Tribunal: On the second day of the Abbeylara siege, John Carthy fired shots at gardaí and levelled the gun at his cousin who tried to talk to him, the Barr tribunal was told yesterday.
Det Sgt Michael Sullivan, then with the Emergency Response Unit, was an assistant to the chief Garda negotiator. On the morning of the second day of the siege, Mr Carthy fired a shot from a window in the house. He kept levelling the shotgun at gardaí.
Sgt Sullivan said another shot was fired at gardaí about 40 minutes later at 9.42 a.m. In his log he had written: "Another shot fired at us, keeps talking away but keeps levelling the gun at us."
He said Mr Carthy's cousin, Mr Tom Walsh, had been asked to come to the negotiating point to try to talk to him.
Sgt Sullivan said: "He levelled the gun at his cousin, Tom Walsh, who tried to talk to him from the negotiating point and we got Tom to duck down immediately. It upset Tom badly."
The tribunal is inquiring into the circumstances into the fatal shooting of Mr Carthy (27) on April 20th, 2000, at Abbeylara, Co Longford.
Earlier, at 5.10 a.m., Sgt Sullivan added, the chief negotiator, Det Insp Michael Jackson, had asked him to stay at the negotiating point in his absence and alert him if anything happened.
Mr Raymond Comyn SC, for the tribunal, asked if he took any steps to negotiate with Mr Carthy during the time Insp Jackson left and returned at 8 a.m.
Sgt Sullivan said he assumed Mr Carthy was asleep but if he heard a sound or movement, he spoke on the loud-hailer or called across about three or four times.
Mr Comyn asked: "Why did you not let him sleep?"
Sgt Sullivan replied: "I believe I did let him sleep. On a couple of occasions if I heard a noise or perceived movement in the room, I called 'John, are you awake?' but there wasn't dialogue."
Mr Comyn asked: "Why didn't you wait until he was up and could see him, one could say you were interfering with his sleep?"
Sgt Sullivan said: "I didn't see it as interfering or opening dialogue, it was just an inquiry to see if he was awake." He said he asked because of safety issues. If he had heard Mr Carthy, he wanted to alert his colleagues. Mr Carthy woke up at about 8 a.m.
"He was aggressive in the sense that he was moving over and back in the room in front of the window and had an angry look on his face," he said.