Shooting victim may have been target of previous gun attack
Mr Kinsella, aged 30 and a father of one, was shot a number of times in front of his partner and his nine-year-old son, inside their home in Finglas, north Dublin, on Monday night.
The recovering drug addict is thought to have been the intended victim of a previous shooting last year, during which an innocent man was slightly injured.
Detectives are investigating if the two incidents are linked and whether the same attackers might have been involved in Monday’s shooting.
Mr Kinsella and his family were in the front room of their rented house on Ratoath Avenue in Finglas west watching television when two men arrived in a distinctive silver Subaru with a large spoiler at around 10pm.
The two men broke a small window of the downstairs room and when Mr Kinsella got up to see what had happened, they fired four shots, fatally injuring him.
He was brought to James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown, but died a short time later.
His partner, Pamela, was traumatised after the shooting and along with their son, Lee, were being comforted by members of the large family. The area was sealed off yesterday pending a forensic examination.
Local sources described Kinsella as a drug abuser, who might have done a small bit of petty dealing from time to time, but was not a major criminal.
But he may have fallen foul of two local dealers who are believed to have carried out a gun attack on him in the same area less than a year ago.
Local sources suspect the same two men may have been behind Monday’s attack.
Officially, gardaí said it is too early to speculate on a possible motive.
Garda sources said shootings which might be initially described as gangland or drug-related often turn out to be the result of personal rows.
A workman on Ratoath Avenue yesterday said there was a verbal row outside and inside the same house last Thursday in which Kinsella, his partner and another man were involved.
Mr Kinsella’s death brings to eight the number of fatal shootings so far this year and to an estimated six the number of suspected gangland killings, four of them since April.
Gardaí are appealing to people who may have seen a silver Subaru with a large spoiler in the area to contact them.
Supt Gabriel McIntyre, who is leading the investigation, said visibility in the area was poor at the time, because of fog.
He said they were looking to piece together the movements of Mr Lee and of the car driven by the attackers.
It emerged yesterday that Mr Kinsella’s brother, Wayne, was convicted in 1996 of the manslaughter of a pensioner, who he mugged to feed a drug habit.
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