A 21-year-old man has described how he believed he was bleeding to death after he was shot at twice while walking back to a house party in Limerick last year.
Ian Brennan, from Grianan, Westbury, Co Clare, lost his gall bladder and had his bowel replaced after he was shot in the back and stomach at St Munchin's Street, St Mary's Park, Limerick in the early hours of September 23rd, 2007.
Yesterday at the Circuit Criminal Court in Limerick, Mr Brennan identified the gunman as Liam "Baby" Kelly (20), Distillery View, Thomondgate, Limerick, who has pleaded not guilty to possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life on the date of the shooting.
The court heard that the gun attack followed a scuffle in a pub earlier that night between Mr Kelly and Mr Brennan in a row over the defendant's girlfriend.
Mr Brennan claimed Mr Kelly threatened him at Dick Devane's pub on Nicholas Street. As he walked to a house party in nearby St Mary's Park later that night, he saw Mr Kelly getting out of a car armed with a sawn-off shotgun.
He claimed the accused shot him once in the back as he began to run away, and then a second time in the stomach when he put his hands up to protect his face.
"I thought I was going to die. I thought it was all over I could feel the blood pouring out of me and I was just hoping to pull through," he said.
The witness said he was 110 per cent sure that Mr Kelly was the person who shot him and pointed him out to the court.
"I was looking into his face on the night . . . that's the man who left me for dead," he said.
The jury was told that Mr Brennan was in hospital for three weeks and spent four days in intensive care following the shooting.
During cross-examination by Brendan Nix SC, defending, Mr Brennan admitted he was aware that Philip Collopy, one of the men with whom he was socialising on the night, had been wearing a bulletproof vest.
Mr Brennan said he had no interest in finding out why Mr Collopy was wearing the vest as it was none of business. He added "a of people are going around wearing vests, the way things are going".
The court heard that, in his statement to gardaí following the shooting, Mr Collopy said he believed that he was the intended target. Mr Nix also told the jury that a number of other people who witnessed the shooting failed to identify his client as the shooter and that they said the gunman's face was covered.
The trial continues today before Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin.