GARDAÍ INVESTIGATING the shooting dead of a man in an apparent gangland attack are studying his links to the drugs trade in their efforts to establish a motive for the killing.
Gardaí believe the man, Michael Hendrick (36), Alpine Heights, Clondalkin, Dublin, went to the murder scene to collect drugs and was shot by the criminal associate he was meeting.
The attack took place at about 8.35pm on Monday in Melrose Park, Clondalkin.
Hendrick was driving his silver Ford Focus car, carrying a friend in the passenger seat, when a gunman approached the driver’s side of the vehicle and opened fire with a .22 automatic pistol.
Hendrick suffered multiple wounds to the upper body. He lost control of the car and crashed into a garden wall.
The gunman escaped across Cuthbert Park on a bicycle in the direction of Bawnogue.
A number of local people heard the gunshots and rang the emergency services. Two gardaí arrived on the scene and gave first aid to the victim until an ambulance crew arrived.
Hendrick was taken to Tallaght Hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
Supt John Quirke of Clondalkin Garda station said gardaí were keeping an open mind as to the motive for the murder.
Gardaí were appealing to the local community to help them solve the crime.
While the man in the car with the victim escaped uninjured, he was traumatised by the incident. He has already been interviewed by gardaí and it is expected that he will be questioned again at length as early as today.
Supt Quirke said the dead man’s family were in shock.
“[The victim] has a partner and, we understand, two children. They are very traumatised at the moment. His partner – we haven’t been able to interview her at all yet.”
Hendrick was a known drug dealer who had served sentences for drugs offences.
He was a member of a Clondalkin drugs gang whose leader is currently in prison.
The gang has been involved in a large number of shootings in recent years.
Feuding with other criminal elements has cost the lives of a number of men, including:
Richard McCormack (29), shot dead in Ronanstown, Dublin, last March;
Damien Dowdall (23), shot at his home in Clondalkin in January 2007;
Shay Bradley (27), found shot dead in a lane near the Phoenix Park in March 2006;
Eoin McCarthy (22), from Clondalkin, shot dead and his remains dumped in Co Wicklow in October 2005.
Hendrick was one of five men arrested in Kerry and Limerick in 2003 when 100kg of cannabis, with an estimated street value of almost €1.3 million was seized by gardaí.
The drugs were found when gardaí stopped and searched a vehicle in Adare, Co Limerick.
Hendrick told gardaí at the time of the 2003 seizure that he was addicted to heroin and had only agreed to drive the drugs from Dublin to Limerick as settlement of a drugs debt.
Members of the Garda Technical Bureau yesterday carried out an examination of the murder scene.
Hendrick’s car was taken from the scene for forensic examination.
The Garda dog unit searched Cuthbert Park yesterday for items that may have been discarded by the killer.
Anyone who was in the Melrose Park estate between 8pm and 9pm on Monday is asked to contact Clondalkin Garda station on 01-6667600.