Boy, 14: I usually shoot with my left hand
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was yesterday described as “street wise” by a senior detective at Limerick circuit court.
The boy and another defendant, Michael Ryan from St Munchin’s Street, St Mary’s Park, admitted having a gun and cartridges at St Mary’s Park on April 2 last and causing criminal damage to a house and a car with shotgun blasts.
Det Garda Gerry Cleary told the court that on the night, members of the Duggan family were asleep when Mr Duggan heard shots being fired. On going to the window Mr Duggan saw two people outside, one who was small, wearing a hoody and holding a gun.
This person, the court heard, said to the other: “The gun jammed, sham.”
The gun was later recovered in a nearby estate.
After a shooting incident at the Duggan family home last January, they installed security CCTV. Det Garda Cleary said footage from this helped identify the boy and Ryan. CCTV footage showed the boy carrying the gun and Ryan standing beside him outside the house.
He said a brother of the boy had been jailed as a result of CCTV footage obtained from the system. This was why the Duggans were being targeted. The boy, when he came upon the Duggans on the street, would call them rats and making hand gestures, as if pointing a gun at them.
Det Garda Cleary said that, as well as the CCTV footage, both the boy and Ryan made admissions about the shooting. He said when the boy was being questioned, he identified himself on the footage and pointed out that he pulled the trigger of the sawn-off shotgun with his left hand, adding . He added: “I usually shoot with my left hand.”
Asked why he shot at the house, he told gardaí: “Because I felt like it.”
Two cartridges, he said, had been fired from the gun and a third had jammed.
Judge Carroll Moran adjourned sentencing.
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