A man shot by gardaí on Friday evening for failing to drop a loaded weapon he brought into a pub Cork city pub is still being treated in hospital.
Anthony “Pedro” O’Leary was shot in the stomach by members of the Garda Regional Support Unit at the Mo Chuisle pub on Blarney Street at about 6.40pm on Friday.
He is understood to have entered the pub brandishing a sawn-off shotgun and threatened staff and customers before demanding to see the pub owner, Niall Burns.
Mr O’Leary shot when he failed to release the weapon. He was rushed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. He was today said to be in a comfortable condition.
An investigation team from the Garda Ombudsman Commission, which investigates incidents involving gardaí, visited the scene of the shooting on Friday night and local Garda technical experts carried out a forensic examination of the scene under their direction.
Officers from the Garda Ombudsman Commission have also taken possession of CCTV footage from a camera in the pub which is understood to have captured the entire incident including the shooting of Mr O’Leary.
It is understood that the member of the RSU who shot Mr O’Leary has taken some days’ leave and that he has surrendered his weapon to investigators from Garda Ombudsman Commission for examination as is standard practice in such investigations.
Meanwhile, gardaí under Supt Con Cadogan of Gurranebraher Garda station have begun a separate investigation into Mr O’Leary’s brandishing of the illegally held sawn-off shotgun in the crowded pub and his threatening of staff and members of the public.
A team of around 20 gardaí have begun interviewing the customers who were in the pub at the time while gardaí have also begun an investigation into how Mr O’Leary made his way to the pub.
Mr O’Leary, who had been granted temporary release on May 13th from Cork Prison having served just over a year of a two-year sentence for burglary, is a nephew of Anthony “Farmer” Hennessy who died after being ejected from Mo Chuisle in March 2008.
The owner of the pub, Niall Burns from Glen Springs, Blackstone Bridge, Cork, was later charged with two other men of endangerment in relation to Mr Hennessy’s death and Mr Burns was acquitted of the charge by a jury while his co-accused were acquitted by direction.
Mr Burns had been accused of endangerment on March 13th and 14th, 2008, at Blarney Street, Cork, where it was alleged that he had intentionally or recklessly engaged in the forceful restraint of Anthony Hennessy, which created a substantial risk of death or serious injury.
The pub was previously attacked in October 2008 when a lone gunman pulled up on a motorbike outside the pub and fired a shot in through a window.
No one was injured but gardaí, despite an extensive investigation, were unable to identify the gunman.