Family of victim ‘no idea’ why he was shot dead

THE family of a man gunned down outside his home yesterday said they had “no idea” why he was murdered.

Father-of-one Joe Rafferty is the third person to be shot dead in Dublin in little over a month.

The 28-year-old courier was slain when he left his apartment in Hayworth Court in west Dublin at around 9.30am.

Rafferty went to enter his van when he was shot twice in the stomach.

His killer, who escaped on foot, was wearing a luminous jacket and woolly hat and had a bag strung over his shoulders.

Gardaí believe the gunman was dressed as a builder to try to blend into the area, close to a major residential construction project.

Detectives said the murder was well-planned and the killer probably cased out the apartment complex in Ongar Park, near Clonee, beforehand.

Supt Gabriel McIntyre, of Lucan Garda Station, appealed to people who saw anyone acting suspiciously to come forward.

Gardaí said yesterday that Rafferty, who worked as a courier for the last six years, was not known to them.

A source said: “We’ve no motive. We are exploring every avenue.”

Detectives are tracing his last hours and the people he had been in contact with in recent days.

Family members, from Pearse Street yesterday went to the scene.

The victim’s sister Sandra said they had “no idea whatsoever” as to why her brother was murdered.

State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy carried out a postmortem yesterday evening.

Meanwhile, gardaí may launch a murder inquiry today following the discovery of a pensioner’s body in a house in Cork.

The body of the 68-year-old man, named locally as John Connolly, was found at his home at 6A Shournagh Lawn, Togher, at 11.45am yesterday.

Gardaí are treating the death as suspicious and said the man’s house had been broken into a number of times before.

The discovery was made by neighbour Ann Herlihy, who was called to the scene when Mr Connolly failed to answer the door to a meals-on-wheels lady who was bringing him lunch.

“I knocked on the door three times and there was no reply.

“I shouted ‘John’ but there was no answer. I got in and I saw him in an inside bedroom with a wardrobe on top of him,” Ms Herlihy said.

Gardaí were last night awaiting the results of a preliminary postmortem.