Man killed in village shoot-out over Border land dispute

A WILD-WEST style shoot-out in the middle of the main street of a small Border village led to the death of one man and a second being treated for gunshot wounds to his neck and face.

Keith Rodgers, 24, from Hackballscross in Co Louth, died of chest injuries shortly after being admitted to Louth County Hospital.

A second man was admitted to hospital just before noon with neck and face wounds after being dropped off at its entrance. He underwent surgery last night. Detectives from Dundalk are to question him when he recovers.

A third man, aged 47, from Monaghan, suffered a broken leg during the shoot out. He is the father of the man who suffered neck and face injuries. He was taken to Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry before being transferred to the Royal Victoria in Belfast.

The Press Association last night reported that the shoot out was connected to a local land dispute. However, other sources suggested the stand-off centred on a row between dissident and mainstream republicans.

Police on both sides of the Border have launched a joint murder investigation following the incident. But the probe has been hampered by a lack of witnesses willing to come forward, despite the shoot-out taking place just before 10am in the forecourt of a petrol station in the centre of the village of Cullaville in south Armagh - a Real IRA heartland.

The row erupted among a group of about 10 men - at least two of whom had crossed the nearby Border from the south.

Police believe the row was linked to a spate of punishment attacks by the Real IRA in the area and that gangs of smugglers are battling for control of the illegal but lucrative cross-border trade in fuel and drugs.

One witness who asked not to be named said: “It was like something you would see in one of John Wayne’s cowboy movies. There was a lot of shouting and pushing and suddenly the guns came out and there were bullets everywhere.

“Everyone in the area dived for cover because you didn’t know where the bullets were going to fly and it is just lucky that there were no children around at the time.”

Assistant Chief Constable Stephen White of the PSNI said: “Considering the history of some other incidents in this part of the world, one of our lines of inquiry would clearly be fall-outs between groupings in the area whether these be smugglers, criminals or paramilitaries, or all three.”

Cullaville lies in the heart of the South Armagh bandit country and has for centuries been a haven for smugglers and robbers.

But in recent years, local members of the Provos who formed the IRA’s most ruthless and successful gang have defected to the Real IRA and have been involved in the making of bombs including those which exploded in London’s docklands and in Omagh.