I felt I had no option, says detective who shot raiders

AN armed Garda detective who fired the shots which fatally injured two raiders in a foiled post office robbery told a court yesterday that he shot the second raider, who was unarmed, because he believed he had a gun and was in fear of his life.

The detective, known only as Detective Garda A, yesterday gave evidence of his involvement in foiling a post office robbery which occurred in the north Co Dublin village of Lusk on the morning of May 26, 2005, and in which two raiders — Colm Griffin and Eric Hopkins — were shot dead by members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit.

Det Garda A told a joint inquest at Dublin City Coroner’s Court into Griffin and Hopkins’s deaths that after entering the sorting office, Det Garda A told the court he heard a banging noise, which he thought was gunfire.