Three teenagers remain in custody this afternoon in connection with the shooting dead of a teenager in Inchicore, Dublin, on Monday.
Paul McCarthy (19), Tyrconnell Road, Inchicore, died after he was shot in the head in a house that was not his home. Garda sources said the man was shot in the centre of the head.
Three men in their late teens are being held at Kevin Street, Harcourt Terrace and Pearse Street Garda stations.
There were at least three other men in the house at the time he was shot in an upstairs bedroom.Gardaí are trying to establish who was in the house at the time.
Gardaí believe that the shooting of the teenager was not planned.Garda sources say it was unlikely Mr McCarthy was lured to the house for the purpose of being shot dead.
Gardaí are exploring two possible reasons why Mr McCarthy was shot.
The first is that one of the young men in the house had a handgun which went off accidentally while being examined, fatally wounding Mr McCarthy in the head.
The second is, again, that one of the young men possessed a gun. While he was examining the weapon, a row broke out and the gun was discharged in a heat-of-the-moment incident.
Garda sources said the fact the gun was thrown away very close by indicates it was very likely that no planning was carried out before the shooting.
Gardaí found a second gun in the bedroom but do not believe it was fired.
The incident took place at 2.50pm in a house on Myra Close, just a couple of hundred metres from the victim's home.
He was taken to St James's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on Monday evening .
Mr McCarthy was arrested in February with a loaded Glock pistol and €20,000 worth of cocaine at a house in Inchicore. He had been before the courts in relation to the seizure.
Gardaí said Mr McCarthy was not regarded as a major gangland criminal.
However, gardaí believe he had links to one of the drug gangs involved in a feud in the suburbs of Crumlin and Drimnagh over the past 10 years.