Gardaí make good progress in murder inquiry

DETECTIVES last night said they were making good progress in their investigation into Dublin’s latest gangland murder.

Terry Dunleavy, 27, was gunned down on Thursday night at a north city flats complex in a suspected drug-related shooting. He is the fourth person in the capital to be shot dead since March, marking a continuing rise in gangland-style violence.

Dunleavy, from Marino, north Dublin, was shot four to five times, before slumping outside his girlfriend’s flat in Croke Villas in Ballybough.

“We are following a number of lines of inquiry,” said a garda source. “We have quite decent leads and would be happy enough.” Dunleavy had a number of criminal convictions.

“He was involved in the drugs trade, not at a high level, more lower down the scale,” said the garda. Gardaí would not comment on reports that Dunleavy may have been carrying drugs.

Separate drug sources said Dunleavy was not a major player and that there were other more serious dealers in Croke Villas. Dunleavy was recently released from jail after serving five years for armed robbery.

Detectives at Fitzgibbon Street Garda Station said they were investigating if there was a link between the murder and shootings carried out by the deceased in the inner city in recent weeks, in which people were injured. Sources said there was “no obvious links” with the murder earlier this week of Joseph Rafferty in west Dublin or other recent murders.

Like Rafferty, Dunleavy was shot by a lone gunman, both of whom made sure their victim was dead.

Dunleavy arrived at Croke Villas at 10.10pm on Thursday and was standing near a car when a man on a moped opened fire. “He fired a number of shots, a number of which hit,” said a garda. “Some sort of chase ensued up the stairway and he was shot a number of other times.”

He said Dunleavy was shot four to five times altogether, some of them in the head.

The gunman, who was wearing a motorcycle helmet, escaped on the moped. It was found burnt-out on nearby St Brigid’s Road, off Drumcondra Road. Gardaí suspect a further getaway vehicle was waiting there.

“The killer covered his tracks,” said the garda source. “There was a degree of planning behind this.”

The killer is described as around 5’7” or 5’8” in height with a large build. Gardaí yesterday began house-to-house inquiries and a trawl of any CCTV cameras in the area. Justice Minister Michael McDowell said he was “repelled by the cold-blooded, premeditated killing” and said there seemed to be a “drug element” involved.

He said that in terms of homicide, Ireland was one of the safest countries in the world and in Europe. He intended to introduce mandatory minimum sentences for firearms offences.