A REPORT by the Garda Ombudsman Commission into the shooting dead by gardaí of two men, one of them unarmed, during an attempted post office robbery will clear the gardaí involved of any wrongdoing.
However, in the report due to be published this morning, the Garda Ombudsman will make a number of recommendations on the improved management of incidents involving firearms.
Colm Griffin (33), Canon Lillis Avenue, and Eric Hopkins (24), Lower Rutland Street, both Dublin 1, were shot dead by Emergency Response Unit officers as they tried to steal €48,500 on the morning of May 26th, 2005, from the Village Stores post office and shop in Lusk, north Co Dublin.
The case was contentious because one of the men shot dead was unarmed and because both men were members of one of two feuding drugs gangs in Sheriff Street in Dublin’s north inner city that threatened to kill gardaí in revenge for the double shooting.
The gardaí involved in the operation six years ago were for personal safety reasons allowed to conceal their identities during the inquest into the deaths. They gave their evidence from behind a curtain in Dublin Coroner’s Court and did not have to state their names. Security was tight in the court.
A Garda operation was put in place in Lusk after intelligence suggested a raid was to take place there on the morning in question. Two armed members of the Emergency Response Unit dressed as construction workers and took up positions in the post office.
While gardaí expected the raiders to enter the post office via the front door where the gang was to be stopped, the men drove around the back of the building and entered via the rear entrance.
The three-man gang then gained access to the public area in the shop’s post office, where there were customers and staff present as gardaí shouted at the men to drop any weapons, before both were shot dead.