Victim of gangland-style shooting killed in front of revellers

NIGHT-TIME revellers watched in horror as the doorman of a busy city centre pub was gunned down in a drive-by attack, the tenth gangland- style shooting since the start of the year.

Ronald Draper, from Tallaght, was hit in the head by the gunman, who calmly stepped off the back of a high-powered motorbike, walked up to the victim and fired up to four shots in rapid succession.

Mr Draper, 25, was working on the door of Charlie P's bar on Eden Quay in Dublin. He was fatally injured and died less than two hours later in the Mater Hospital.

Detectives investigating the shooting, which happened late on Saturday night, have appealed for witnesses. Dozens of people were in the area at the time waiting for late evening buses or walking between pubs.

The area was sealed for much of yesterday as garda forensic experts made a technical examination. At least one of the bullets passed through the window of the door, while dried blood was visible on one of its lower panels.

Witnesses described how two people pulled up outside the pub on a black motorbike around 10.15pm.

One of the men, still wearing a helmet, stepped off the bike, walked up the door and fired a number of shots. He turned, walked away and jumped back on to the bike which was then driven off at speed past Liberty Hall. The whole incident was over in seconds, one witness said.

The bike used in the gun attack a 400cc Honda was later recovered in a street off Amiens Street.

Superintendent Derek Byrne, from nearby Store Street Station, said a lot of people have come forward with information but he appealed for others to do so.

Detectives want to speak to anyone who may have been in the Eden Quay area between 10pm and 10.30pm.

They also want any person who may have seen the bike being abandoned in the Amiens Street/Frankfurt Cottages area to contact them at Store Street or any other garda station.

They have not yet established a motive but detectives have no doubt it is gangland-related.

It is the second such killing in Dublin in a week after the death of William O'Regan, 34, from Finglas, fatally wounded on Tuesday after being shot in front of his girlfriend inside the flat they shared on the New Cabra Road in north Dublin.

Ten people have now died in gangland-related violence this year, eight in the Dublin area and two in Limerick.