Shot trio have ‘endless’ list of enemies, says Garda source
Detectives investigating the incident are probing links to dissident republicans, but a Garda source said this was just one line of enquiry. “The list of enemies these men have is endless.”
Cousins Gary and Christopher Gleeson and their friend, David Morgan, who are all in their mid-20s, were seriously injured when they were attacked by two men with handguns as they sat drinking at playing fields in Corduff Park in west Dublin at 11.15am on Sunday.
David Morgan was shot in the back of the head and collapsed at the scene. He remains in a critical condition in hospital with a bullet lodged at the back of his eye, but after a touch-and-go 24 hours he is now expected to survive.
The Gleeson cousins both received several wounds, but managed to flee into a nearby house to raise the alarm. Their condition was described yesterday as serious but not life-threatening.
Their attackers had walked calmly across the open green towards them and shot them at close range before escaping on foot through an adjoining housing estate.
It is now thought the attack was opportunistic with the gunmen seizing the chance to go after their victims when they spotted them hanging out in the park and saw they were an easy target. They were equipped only with revolvers rather than the automatic weapons more normally used by criminal figures in pre-planned executions although gardaí are treating the shootings as attempted murder.
All three men were known to gardaí as local troublemakers and Christopher Gleeson, 25, was convicted in 2006 of a brutal assault on a teacher who was left in a coma for more than a month after he tried to stop Gleeson and others breaking into his car.
He was described in court at the time as a chronic schizophrenic of borderline intelligence who was a danger to others, and was sentenced to seven years in jail with the last three years suspended.
Door-to-door enquiries were continuing yesterday in Corduff yesterday and the Garda source said there had been a good level of response despite the fear the incident had brought to the area.
Corduff has suffered from crime and anti-social activities, but one local person said the area had quietened down in the last few years and residents were determined not to let it fall back into old ways.
