A SECURITY guard has described his horror at seeing a handgun suddenly appear between a wall and the head of a young man he was talking to before the man was shot seven times in a sustained attack.
Gerard “Batt” Byrne (26), of Ferryman’s Crossing, Dublin, was standing outside the Mace supermarket on Mayor Street in the Irish Financial Services Centre (IFSC) on December 13th, 2006, when he was gunned down in a targeted shooting, an inquest heard yesterday.
Mr Byrne, who was known to the Garda, had a short time earlier remarked on a silver car he had seen pass him a number of times. He would have had concerns for his safety, investigating officer Det Insp Kevin Dolan, of Store Street Garda station, told an inquest into his death at Dublin City Coroner’s Court yesterday. Security guard at Mace supermarket Peter Walsh told the court he was standing outside the supermarket, smoking and talking to Mr Byrne and his friend Eric McMahon when, “the next thing noticed was a small black automatic handgun come up between the wall and Gerard Byrne’s head, over his right shoulder.
“The next thing I saw was an arm come up and the gun was put to the back of Gerard Byrne’s head. I saw a flash like sparks and I heard a loud bang . . . I saw Ger fall,” said Mr Walsh, who was left with hearing damage as a result of the incident.
The first bullet was discharged to the back of Mr Byrne’s neck, extensively damaging the skull and brain and causing irreparable brain damage, a postmortem by State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy found.
A second bullet was discharged to his chin, followed by five shots to the left side of his head, inflicted as Mr Byrne was collapsing or on the ground. The incident was captured on CCTV.
Mr Walsh then saw the gunman, wearing thick biker gloves and a ski mask, run across the road and put the gun in his pocket before jumping into the front passenger seat of a silver car, which sped off in the direction of Sheriff Street.
Members of the emergency services and gardaí who arrived at the scene minutes later found Mr Byrne lying in a pool of blood with blood “pumping” from his head, despite the assistance of two doctors who lived across the road from the scene of the crime.
The man was taken to the Mater hospital, where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later.
A jury of four women and two men returned a verdict of unlawful killing by persons unknown under the direction of coroner Dr Brian Farrell.
The Garda investigation into Mr Byrne’s death is ongoing.
The coroner expressed his condolences to the Byrne family, including his father, Gerard Byrne – who was in court with other family members – and called on anyone with information about the killing to inform gardaí.