Man, 23, shot after pub row, ‘in wrong place at wrong time’
Keith Fitzsimons, 23, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting late on Friday night in Coolock, north Dublin.
The murder is the fourth fatal shooting in the vicinity of Coolock since March and brings to 11 the number of people shot dead in the country this year.
Senior officers said the four gun murders being investigated in the area by Coolock gardaí were not linked, and appealed to anyone who had any information to come forward.
Initial investigations suggest the shooting may have been the result of a minor pub row and that Mr Fitzsimons may not have been the intended victim of the gun attack.
He was with two friends standing at a driveway on Millbrook Road in Coolock at about 11.20pm when two men got out of a car and approached them.
One of the assailants opened fire, discharging up to seven shots.
Mr Fitzsimons was shot three times in the chest and body and is believed to have been killed instantly. His two friends received relatively minor injuries to their legs and arms, and were later discharged from hospital.
The gunmen are understood to have fled the scene on foot and then escaped in a car waiting nearby.
Detectives arrested a man, aged in his 20s, early on Saturday morning and took him to Coolock Garda Station.
He was detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act, which allows a maximum detention period of 72 hours.
He is not thought to be one of the main suspects, but may have information that could be of assistance to detectives.
Gardaí do not believe the shooting is gangland-related and suspect it may instead be linked to a row that took place earlier in the night outside a pub in Edenmore, in nearby Raheny, at about 8.30pm.
It is thought the row involved a number of people including the two friends of Mr Fitzsimons who were later injured. It was not clear yesterday whether Mr Fitzsimons, who is from Glin Grove in Coolock, was involved in the row at the pub.
The victim’s mother was reported yesterday as saying her son was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“He was a great kid, an absolutely great kid,” said Esther Fitzsimons. “He was never in any trouble. He was never mixed up in any crime. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Last Monday week, Paddy Harte, 42 and a father-of-four, was shot dead in Edenmore Avenue.
In April, heroin addict Gerard Goulding, 24, was shot dead in Donaghmede. And in March 22-year-old Donna Cleary was the random victim of an indiscriminate shooting at a house party in Coolock.
Gardaí continued inquiries yesterday along Millbrook Road and at the pub where the initial altercation took place, also examining CCTV footage.
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