GARDAÍ INVESTIGATING the State’s latest gangland murder believe the killing was part of an ongoing feud between rival drugs gangs that has so far claimed 12 lives.
Anthony Cannon (26), of Robert’s Street, in Dublin’s south inner city, was shot twice in the head at St Mary’s Avenue West, off Sarsfield Rd, Ballyfermot, at 4pm yesterday.
A number of young children witnessed the shooting.
Cannon was on bail awaiting trial on assault charges. His shooting was the 17th gun murder this year.
Cannon was travelling in a car when he saw two men, one of them armed, on a motorbike. He got out of his car and ran, trying to jump over railings into nearby Longmeadows Park.
The gunman caught up with him and opened fire. A number of shots were discharged as Cannon lay wounded on the ground.
A postmortem is expected to confirm he sustained a number of other wounds apart from the head shots.
Garda sources said at least 11 rounds were fired. The victim was wearing a bullet-proof vest.
Cannon was a very close associate of the leader of one of the gangs involved in a drugs feud in Crumlin and Drimnagh, both in southwest Dublin, and was himself a gang member.
A member of the rival gang recently sustained a minor injury in a shooting. Cannon was suspected by the rival gang of carrying out that attack. Gardaí are investigating if yesterday’s murder was in retaliation for the earlier non-fatal shooting.
Cannon had been warned by gardaí that his life was in danger and had taken to wearing a bulletproof vest.
Local resident Eoin Fleming said of yesterday’s gun attack: “I’m not particularly shocked as shootings are happening all over the place at the moment.”
Cannon had a number of convictions and had been sentenced to at least one term of imprisonment, for one year, for criminal damage. He also had a conviction for possession of cannabis and had been banned from driving for 10 years after being caught drink driving in 2007. He was due in court next week to face trial for public order and assault charges. He was last in prison in May in relation to that charge but was released on bail after just hours in jail.
He was a suspect for a number of gun attacks in which rival gang members carried out drive-by shootings on each others’ grandparents’ houses.
Garda sources said there has been an escalation in non-fatal gun attacks and pipe bomb incidents in recent months as part of the Crumlin-Drimnagh feud. Cannon’s name had surfaced a number of times during the investigation of those attacks.
The last person killed in the Crumlin-Drimnagh feud was Séamus O’Byrne (27), Drimnagh. He was shot outside a house in Tallaght on March 13th. O’Byrne was a member of the same gang as Anthony Cannon.
The Crumlin-Drimnagh feud started when one young drug dealer was accused by his associates of supplying information to gardaí that led to a multimillion drug seizure. Two factions emerged and they have been feuding for almost 10 years, costing 12 lives. The gang leader with whom Cannon was very closely associated is serving sentences for drug and gun crime. He cannot be named for legal reasons.
The leader of the other gang has escaped serious gun charges. He spends a lot of time in Spain with other Irish criminals.
Cannon was also a close associate of Dublin criminal Neil Fitzgerald. The 28-year-old from Dufferin Ave, South Circular Road, was jailed for 12 years in May.
He pointed a semi-automatic pistol at gardaí in Dolphins Barn in July 2008 as he was being arrested for questioning about a car chase.