Shot man may have been targeted by dealer

GARDAÍ are investigating claims a man shot twice in the back at close range in front of children may have been targeted by a drug dealer.

Brendan Cox, aged 40, died almost instantly after receiving two blasts from a shotgun to his lower back in the Ballyfermot area of South Dublin on Sunday. His assassin callously gunned the father-of-two down just yards from where a number of children were playing on Clifden Drive in Cherry Orchard at around 7.15pm.

Mr Cox, who lived in nearby Cleggen Road, was walking his dog when targeted.

Sources yesterday said Cox was known to be involved in the drugs trade and may have fallen foul of a dealer. “He obviously stood on someone’s feet and that someone didn’t like what he was doing. He was no angel, but no one has the right to take anyone else’s life.”

Garda investigating the murder said Cox was well known to them. Detectives said they have not yet established a motive for the attack, but stressed the probe was in its early stages.

“We have no definite line of inquiry at the moment. We are pursuing a number of lines of inquiry,” said Det Supt Hubert Collins.

He said Cox walked from Clifden Road onto Clifden Drive, accompanied by another man. Cox was singled out by his attacker.

Det Supt Collins appealed to local people who saw anything or had any information to contact Ballyfermot Garda Station at 01-6667200.

He said that after the assassin fired the shots, he ran onto Clifden Road.

Local sources yesterday suggested people had been slow to offer assistance to the gardaí, possibly for fear of their safety.

Meanwhile, parents of the children, aged 10-12, who witnessed the shooting were yesterday trying to comfort their loved ones. One parent said: “I was in the house at the time and my daughter was sitting on the wall with her friends. They just heard a shot. It was right beside them where it happened, just a few centimetres away from them.”

All the children were devastated. Her daughter was roaring and crying. “I couldn’t console her. The more she was thinking about it, she’d seen the fella just falling to the ground. All the mothers had to keep the children off school.”

Members of the large Cox family consoled each other at the scene yesterday, as friends and sympathisers placed flowers and wreaths where he died.

Local councillor Vincent Jackson appealed to people to assist gardaí: “I’m appalled at the callousness of how it was done, and to have done it in front of children playing out. But for the grace of God one of those kids could have been killed. I would ask people with information to assist the guards. The world is a nastier place with those people walking the streets.”

It’s the second murder in Cherry Orchard in the last five months and the third fatal gangland shooting so far this year.