Gardaí confident of tracking pub killer
Gardaí have built up a good description of the attacker, who was openly drinking before he approached father-of-two James Curran and shot him in the head.
"He wasn't masked, so we would be hopeful of tracking him down," said Superintendent Eddie Quirke of Kevin Street Station. Officers don't believe it was a gangland killing and suspect it was the result of a personal dispute between Mr Curran and his attacker.
The shooting happened during a karaoke session in The Green Lizard pub on Francis Street, in Dublin's south inner city, between 10.15pm and 10.25pm Sunday night.
Supt Quirke, who is leading the murder investigation, said early indications suggested both men entered the pub at around the same time at 9.30pm. "We're not sure who was there first, but they were both there for up to an hour."
He said gardaí were trying to establish if either man was in the company of other people.
Initial inquiries indicated that when the attacker went to shoot Mr Curran, of Lark Hill Road, Whitehall, with a handgun he may have discharged two or three shots, one of them into the victim's head. "It was a callous killing, especially in a crowded pub," said Supt Quirke.
"It was a reckless shooting because other people's lives could have been endangered."
The attacker fled the pub on foot, but gardaí don't yet know if he went in the direction of Thomas Street or down Francis Street and off one of the many side streets.
Supt Quirke said there were between 25 and 30 people in the bar at the time and that those spoken to had been very helpful.
He said between 10 and 12 people, possibly more, fled the pub in panic as the shots were fired.
Gardaí were trying to identify and trace those people and Supt Quirke appealed to them to come forward to assist in the investigation.
He said the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) was assisting local gardaí in tracing the killer.
Gardaí are looking at internal and external CCTV cameras in the area.
Detectives are appealing for anyone with information to contact them on 01-6669400.
Mr Curran, a former European kick-boxing champion, was originally from the area, but moved to Swords, north Dublin, to live with his partner.
He regularly stayed with his mother on Thomas Davis Street, which is just around the corner from the pub. Mr Curran's brother yesterday said they did not know why the murder had happened.
"Our mother is in shock, we're all in shock. He was a European champion kick boxer in his day. He'd run a marathon at the drop of a hat, but what good was that to him in the end?"
He trained young people in martial arts in a room above a takeaway outlet on nearby Meath Street.
The murder is the third in the south inner city this year and the fifth to occur in a pub in the area in the past two years.
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Paul Warren, aged 23, from Teresa's Gardens flat complex, was shot dead in Grays pub in Newmarket Square. Two masked raiders entered the bar.
One guarded the door, while the other walked up and singled out Warren, firing one shot. The victim ran towards the toilet and was shot again.
Warren is thought to have owed money to a drug dealer. A man was subsequently charged with his murder. John Roche, the 25-year-old suspected of guarding the door, was murdered last month as part of a gang feud.
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Thomas Canavan, aged 35, of Myra Close, Inchicore, was shot at point blank in Cleary's Pub on Sarsfield Road in Inchicore.
A gunman wearing a helmet walked in, singled him out and fired three shots. He then walked calmly out and was driven away by an accomplice on a motorbike. The murder was not a gangland killing. The victim is understood to have had a row with a known criminal over a woman. The previous November a pensioner was mistakenly shot and injured in the same pub.
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Declan Griffin, aged 32, from Coolock, was shot dead at the Horse and Jockey pub in Inchicore. The drug dealer and informant was wearing a bulletproof vest at the time of his death.
Shay Wildes, aged 36, from Corbally Park, Tallaght, was subsequently charged with his murder, but the jury failed to reach a verdict. A new trial has been set.
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Ray Sallinger, aged 40, was gunned down in Farrell's pub, off Clanbrassil Street. Two masked men, one carrying a handgun, shot the heroin dealer a number of times in the chest and head.
Files were sent to DPP in relation to some aspects, but not the murder. The evidence was deemed insufficient for any charges. Murder thought to have been ordered by foreign-based Irish drugs trafficker.
