Widow recalls last kiss before husband brutally shot
An emotional Jodie Ward remembered the last kiss from Edward, her 24-year-old husband and father of their two daughters Jessica and Katie.
The couple were joking in the yard of a garage on Greenhills Road, Walkinstown, Dublin, which belonged to 40-year-old Brian Downes.
Minutes later Jodie was holding her husband Edward on the ground amid a bloody scene as his life slipped away before her.
“My husband kissed me. Brian came back and he was talking for a while and his kids were in the house, I could see them...we talked.”
Jodie Ward got back into the couple’s car to wait for her husband to finish business. The radio was on. Metres away, the shooting began.
“I saw shadows from behind a car... I could hear noises. Shortly after that, there were kind of fireworks going off. They went on for a while.”
Gardaí now know up to 10 bullets were fired into the bodies of Downes and Mr Ward by a gunman, who arrived by motorcycle.
“Next I knew Brian’s mother came out to me, she was all blood. She said ‘my son’s been shot.’”
“I went in and I saw Brian lying there. And I looked around and I said ‘Brian’s been shot’ and I looked down and my husband was dead. And I didn’t even see anything. I didn’t hear anything and I was in the car.
“And my husband was killed and I checked him to see if he was alive. I saw Brian’s boys running out to him, checking him and there was all blood all over Brian, I couldn’t see any blood on Edward. I thought maybe he was knocked out but then I shook him, I knew he was dead,” Ms Ward said in an interview.
Downes has since been linked to drug dealers, stolen cars and a Dublin feud that has claimed several lives.
Senior gardaí met in Crumlin yesterday where an investigation into the double murder is being led. Contacts between Downes and drug gangs from not only Dublin but surrounding contacts are being examined. Gardaí believe a professional gunman was hired judging by 9mm pistol shots fired.
The family of Mr Ward are offering a reward for his killers to be turned in.
Mr Ward, a settled Traveller, was in the wrong place at the wrong time, his shocked brothers Michael and Laurence said: “Edward was the linchpin — the jewel in our crown,” they told RTÉ.
He had recently bought a new house in Tuam, Galway, with his wife Jodie and daughters Jessica, aged three, and Katie, six months.
The Ward brothers denied their brother had links with criminals, unlike Mr Downes who has been linked with car clocking as well as local drug dealers since the double murder.
“Anybody with any information at all that would come forward to the Garda Síochána, we’d appreciate it. My family and friends will put a reward up.”
Both brothers added: “Edward was involved in no criminal activities whatsoever. He was a straight honest lad, did his business, he loved his wife and kids. He loved life.
“We just want justice for our brother and to make sure this thug doesn’t kill anyone else.”
The Ward family called for Justice Minister Brian Lenihan to provide more resources for gardaí.
Gardaí have appealed for anyone who saw two men leave the scene on a motorbike heading towards the Walkinstown roundabout to phone them on 01/6666200.
