Man killed in Spain got in 'way of the gunfire'

A DUBLIN man who was shot in Spain on Wednesday died because he got in the way of the gunfire but was not involved in a row, his family said yesterday.

John O’Neill (40) from Coolock died from gunshot wounds shortly after an argument broke out in Coco’s Bar in Benalmadena.

A British man believed to have been involved in the row left the bar and returned with a .38-calibre revolver. He fired at least five shots. “He was in the wrong place,” his aunt Peig Dowdall said. “John was in the way of the gunfire, as a result he is dead,” she added.

Ms Dowdall described him as a “gentle giant” and said he was not the sort of man to get involved in a row. “He is not that type of guy, he was just gorgeous big soft guy, always a smile on his face. One way we always remember him is this lovely big smiley face,” she said.

Mr O’Neill was in Spain for a friend’s wedding and was enjoying a family holiday with his partner Maxine, his three-year-old boy Jake and nine-month-old baby girl Yasmine.

He loved his children and couldn't believe he had them and adored his partner, Ms Dowdall told RTÉ's Six One News.

Mr O’Neill’s partner was with him in the bar along with some 30 members of the wedding party at the time the fight broke out.

The argument is believed to have started in the pub’s toilets when a British man began banging on the door of a locked cubicle.

Spanish police are still searching for the gunman, but believe they have identified the killer, who is thought to be from Liverpool.

Mr O’Neill was killed by a shot to the back as he left the bar and died by a bus stop 45 metres from the bar.

His body was taken to the Institute of Legal Medicine in Malaga where an autopsy was due to be carried out. His family is upset that it may take some months to get his body home.

“We don’t know and have to wait until the Spanish decide when he can come home. Seemingly it is very difficult to get him home,” Ms Dowdall said.

This delay was “destroying” his mother and father Angela and Hugh as well as his siblings David and Sharon, she said.

“They just want to get him home, just have him buried and have somewhere to visit him,” she said.