Carthy ‘stopped moving when first shot rang out’

A GARDA witness told the Barr Tribunal yesterday that he did not see John Carthy take any more steps after he was shot for the first time by a member of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU).

Mr Carthy was shot dead by members of the specialist force after a 24-hour siege in Abbeylara, Co Longford, in April 2000.

He was hit by four bullets in a matter of seconds when he refused to drop his weapon and began walking up the public road after leaving his house.

Garda Stephen Connolly, who was at the scene when Mr Carthy came out of his home, told the tribunal that Mr Carthy stopped moving after the first shot rang out.

Up to this, evidence from garda witnesses at the tribunal had repeatedly stated Mr Carthy was still moving after the first, second and third bullets hit him, and he was only brought down by the fourth and fatal bullet.

The contradiction between Garda Connolly’s evidence and that of other gardaí was queried by counsel for the Carthy family, Peter Mullan, who introduced the statement of ERU member Garda Aidan McCabe to the tribunal.

Garda McCabe was the officer who shot and killed Mr Carthy when he fired a third and fourth bullet at the 27-year-old man.

Garda McCabe claimed Mr Carthy was still walking in a “purposeful and menacing” manner after he had been shot twice by one of his ERU colleagues.

Garda McCabe said he felt all lawful means of stopping Mr Carthy from killing someone had been exhausted, and that was the reason he fired two shots from his Uzi sub-machine gun.