A MAN was fatally shot in the back as he chatted on the street on a Saturday afternoon, the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
The drive-by shooting happened after the man left his partner to visit his mother. Stephen O’Sullivan (20), of Galtee View, O’Malley Park, Southill, Limerick, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mark Moloney (40) at South Claughan Road, Garryowen, Limerick, on April 5th, 2008.
Patrick McCarthy, prosecuting, said that at about 2.45pm the victim was chatting to a man when a black Toyota car arrived from the Garryowen direction.
In his opening speech at Mr O’Sullivan’s trial, he said shots were fired from the car. The car moved on and more shots were fired towards Mr Moloney, before the car sped away. “He had tried to dive behind a van,” he said of the victim. However, a 9mm bullet struck him in the back and he died afterwards despite medical help.
The car was found burnt out in Drombanna, about 10km away. Mr O’Sullivan was arrested that evening.
Local man Seán Kelly also dived for cover when the shooting started that afternoon. “The car came around the corner and I hit the deck because they were firing,” he testified, adding that this happened “in the space of about two seconds”.
He said he saw two people in the car as it turned a corner and the gunfire began. “The window was down,” he recalled of the passenger door. “The upper half of his body was out the window . . . He was sitting out on the door, leaning on the roof . . . He had a gun in his hand.” He estimated that this man was in his 20s. “I got the hell out of the way, I went down in front of my car. I didn’t look.”
When the car had sped away, Mr Kelly saw the victim lying behind a van.
The victim’s partner, Lorraine O’Doherty said: “On the way down the road Mark went to visit his mother and I went to visit my mother. About 10 to 15 minutes later I got a call to say Mark had been up in Garryowen and was shot.”
The trial before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury is expected to last three to four weeks.