A 35-year-old Army sergeant is to be charged with murder at Navan District Court this morning after a fatal shooting in Ashbourne, Co Meath, on New Year's Day.
Gardai began a murder investigation shortly after the death by gunshot wounds of Mr Dermot McKeever (20), who had been sharing a house with a number of other young people on the Milltown estate in Ashbourne.
Mr McKeever appears to have been shot in the driveway of the house after an altercation. He was hit a number of times and when gardai arrived at the scene at around 6.30 p.m. they arrested the soldier and took possession of a loaded, legally-held shotgun.
A Defence Forces spokesman confirmed last night that the man detained was a sergeant, originally from Ashbourne but attached to McKee Barracks in Dublin. He had 18 years' service, including six tours of duty in the Lebanon, most recently five years ago with the 76th Battalion.
A number of the shots broke windows in the house and the door, but no one else was injured. An ambulance from Drogheda and a rapid-response medical unit from Navan rushed to the scene and Mr McKeever was removed to the James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown. He died there two hours later.
A member of the investigating team confirmed yesterday that there was an altercation between two men before the shots were fired.
The Milltown estate is one of the oldest in Ashbourne and other residents were reluctant to comment on the incident. The area was sealed off early yesterday as a thorough technical examination began.
A post-mortem conducted by the State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, yesterday afternoon confirmed that Mr McKeever had died from gunshot wounds. Neither he nor the man arrested was known to gardai. While both had associations with the town, they had also lived outside Co Meath for some time.