Barr Tribunal: If John Carthy had fired his gun in the general direction of Abbeylara when he was on the road, the shot had the potential to kill someone up to 55 yards away or cause serious injury up to 200 yards away, a Garda ballistics expert told the tribunal.
Det Sgt Seamus Quinn, ballistics section of the Garda Technical Bureau, now retired, attended the scene after the fatal shooting on April 20th, 2000.
He said the shotgun cartridges available to and discharged by Mr Carthy were lethal rounds and not non-lethal "bird-shot" as reported in some media at the time. Mr Quinn said: ". . . when he came out on to the road had he discharged the shotgun in the general direction of Abbeylara, each shot had the potential of killing any person up to 55 yards distance and causing serious injury up to 200 yards distance."
All the shots fired had the potential to be fatal, he said.
When he arrived at the scene, Mr Quinn saw Mr Carthy's body on the road covered with a blanket.
He retrieved the shotgun lying beside the body. The gun was in excellent condition, well maintained. There was nothing to prevent it being discharged. The safety catch was off the weapon when he found it, he said.
"It is evident from my examination of the scene that the deceased was familiar with his weapon and a fair, good marksman," Mr Quinn said.
He attended the post-mortem later. Mr Carthy received four gunshot wounds.
The next day, he was the first garda to go into the Carthy house. He described the kitchen as "a scene of total destruction and havoc". There were broken plates, an overturned television, broken chairs and table, and windows.
He found a number of spent cartridges, one blast went through the door and into the bedroom.
Outside, he found a phone broken by a shot.
In total, inside and outside the house, he found 30 spent cartridges. All had been recently discharged.
Mr Quinn said he took the weapons from the members of the Emergency Response Unit who were at the scene. There were 13 firearms altogether.
The pistol of Det Insp Michael Jackson had been fired twice and the Uzi submachine-gun of Det Sgt Aidan McCabe had also been fired twice.
