Murdered man was in drugs gang

A MAN shot dead outside a prison was a member of a west Dublin drugs gang who was only recently released from prison after serving nine months for possession of drugs.

Jonathan O’Reilly, from Ronanstown in west Dublin, died after being shot three times in a car outside Cloverhill Prison, Dublin on Saturday.

His death came less than 24-hours after the release of quarterly crime figures that revealed a 54% increase in shootings.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell, announcing the figures for the first quarter of 2004, suggested that if the present trend continued, it might not be sustainable to keep gardaí unarmed.

Yesterday, he is reported to have ruled out the idea of gardaí on the beat carrying arms. He told a Sunday newspaper that planned anti -gun legislation, including mandatory sentences for possession, was the “price of having an un-armed police force”.

Over the last number of years, however, an increasing number of specialist gardaí, many of them dealing with gangland crime, do carry arms regularly.

Mr O’Reilly was sitting in a BMW car with two associates around 3pm on Saturday. A motorbike pulled up alongside the front side window and the pillion passenger fired three shots at point blank range, killing the 25-year-old instantly. He was hit in the neck and chest.

The other passengers in the car were unhurt. The driver of the car had been in the prison visiting an inmate when the shooting occurred. Gardaí described the killing as extremely professional. Staff from the prison rushed out to help the man. He was taken to Tallaght Hospital but died before 4pm.