Boy (2) escapes injury after second gun attack incident

A TWO-YEAR-OLD boy has escaped injury after becoming caught up in a gangland gun attack for a second time in six months.

The shootings, which are unrelated, left two men with multiple gunshot wounds.

The shootings took place in Kinsealy, north Co Dublin, on Wednesday night and in nearby Darndale last July. The child was being cared for by the two men targeted in the separate incidents.

In the latest attack in Kinsealy, the child's father was the target of the gunman.

The attacker called to a house in Drynam Drive just after 10pm and gained access to the property by shooting his way through the back patio door.

The parents of the baby were both in the rented house with a female friend watching television. They all ran up the stairs with the couple hiding in a bedroom and their friend locking herself into the bathroom.

The gunman ran upstairs after them and after kicking in the bathroom door, he tried to kick in the door of the bedroom to get at the man he wanted to shoot.

The target, a 29-year-old, managed to keep the bedroom door pushed closed. The gunman then fired shots through the door wounding the victim in the arm, chest and neck. The gunman then fled the house.

The two women and the baby boy were unharmed.

Gardaí believe the boy's father has fallen foul of a Ballymun drug dealer, who is the chief suspect for the shooting.

The suspect was released on bail just after Christmas after he was charged with a number of criminal offences.

The child who was in the house in Drynam had also been caught up in another serious gun attack in Darndale in July.

On that occasion he was in a car with his mother and a male friend. The woman went into a house in Buttercup Park to have her hair cut, leaving the baby in the care of her male friend in the car.

A gunman walked up to the VW Golf and began discharging shots from a revolver through the window at the man. Gardaí believe at least five shots were fired.

The victim was wounded in the back and neck but survived. The baby was taken to Temple Street hospital and was treated for minor graze injuries caused by shards of glass from the gunshots.

The victim of the Darndale shooting is a Dubliner in his 20s. He had only been released from prison when he was shot. Gardaí believe he was targeted by a man with whom he had previously clashed over a personal matter.