A TEENAGER who gave chase to a lone gunman on a pedal cycle who had shot and killed his older brother was greatly traumatised by the event and took his own life three months later, an inquest heard yesterday.
Gavin McCarthy (21), of Lower Oriel Street, Dublin, was standing outside an Indian takeaway on Lower Sheriff Street with a group of friends on the evening of October 19th, 2008, when a gunman approached the group on a bicycle and fired four shots in quick succession.
Mr McCarthy was fatally wounded in the neck and lower leg and was pronounced dead at the Mater Hospital a short time later, the inquest heard.
Eric Moirs, who was in the group and who witnessed the shooting, told Dublin City Coroner’s Court that at about 9pm he saw a “bloke on a bicycle” a few yards from them. “He seemed to come out of nowhere . . . He stopped his bicycle on the footpath in front of us. He took out a handgun and started firing,” he said. “The gunman fired about two or three shots . . . I saw Gavin McCarthy hit the ground and turn onto his side. He shot him again while he was on the ground.”
The man, who was wearing dark clothing, gloves and a balaclava then cycled “slowly” away in the direction of Crianan Strand.
He was described in the statement of another witness, Ian Ledden, who was not at the inquest, as being about 18 or 19 and of skinny build.
The wounded man’s brother, Daniel McCarthy, who was sitting in his car at the time of the shooting, gave chase to the man on the bike. “When he got up onto the path . . . he had a gun in his right hand. I didn’t care,” read a statement given by the teenager before he died.
“I kept going . . . I grabbed him by the hood. He jumped off the bike and the bike fell. He kept running,” went the statement, which was read out in court.
The gunman escaped, but Daniel McCarthy saw him drop his firearm and he picked it up and hid it. He later took gardaí to the location where the gun was hidden, but it was no longer there. Gardaí later located it near by.
There had apparently been previous threats on Gavin McCarthy’s life, Supt Kevin Dolan told the inquest. An extensive Garda investigation was launched and a number of arrests were made. To date no one has been charged in relation to the shooting.
Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard Daniel McCarthy was greatly traumatised at what happened and his family believe that was one reason he took his life. In the case of Gavin McCarthy, the jury of four men and three women returned a verdict of death by unlawful killing under the direction of coroner Dr Brian Farrell.