Gunman ‘cased’ house before hit and then lay in wait for victim

EDWARD CUMMINS’S brutal and callous murder bore all the hallmarks of a “professional” gangland hit.

The rented house at 110 Old Court in the quiet Greenfields Estate just off the Ballincollig bypass, where the young plasterer and father of one was staying with his partner Michelle Cunningham and their infant son, may have been ‘cased’ the night before the shooting, Ms Cunningham believes. She noticed a man walk by outside and pause to light a cigarette and make a call on a mobile phone.

At about 9.30pm the next day, Saturday, August 13, 2005, a group of teenagers noticed a Red Honda Accord, carrying two men, sweep at speed into the Fernwalk cul-de-sac, opposite Ms Cunningham’s four-bedroomed, semi-detached house.

The car parked in a turning circle and the men sat there, smoking cigarettes and chatting, for up to 30 minutes. The man in the driver’s seat drummed the steering wheel and sat with his back to the half-open driver’s window. His accomplice in the passenger seat kept his head down. Witnesses said they never really saw the men’s faces.

One of the men walked to the victim’s house and tried the front-door handle before returning to the car.

The teenagers continued to play football and chat. Their ball bounced close to the car, but they were afraid to retrieve it, given the suspicious nature of the car’s occupants.

The inquest heard how, as Mr Cummins and his family pulled into the drive, the gloved gunman got out of the passenger seat of the Honda. He walked calmly to the middle of the green, where he retrieved a handgun from the base of a tree. He then walked towards the victim’s house, cocked the weapon in his right hand, then began to jog, quickening as he neared the house.

Mr Cummins tickled his infant son on the bonnet of their Micra car, as Ms Cunningham opened the door of the house. As Mr Cummins held his child and walked towards the front door, the gunman jumped on to a wall and opened fire with a high-powered 9mm Belgian-made FM Browning semi-automatic pistol.

Mr Cummins was struck four times, once in the back, twice in the chest, and in the neck. He collapsed, fatally wounded. His screaming child lay beside him, one of his legs trapped beneath his dying father’s body.

The teenagers on the green fled in terror. Ms Cunningham screamed, alerting neighbours, who ran to help.

The gunman ran back and jumped into the Honda, which sped off.

An off-duty garda who heard the gunshots was on the scene within seconds and raised the alarm. Ambulance crews and gardaí rushed to the scene. but Mr Cummins was already dead.

The scene was sealed off overnight and the next morning, forensic experts found three spent 9mm cartridges and a discharged bullet in the driveway, a second discharged bullet in the hall, and a third in the kitchen. The fourth bullet, which caused the fatal wound, was retrieved from Mr Cummins’s body.

That gunman’s getaway car was found burned out in Ballingully in Waterfall the next morning, 2.5km from the scene of the shooting. Gardaí believe that another dark-coloured car which had been parked nearby, was used later.

A badly burned handgun was found on the back seat of the charred Honda. Its serial number had been erased. Ballistic tests linked it to the shooting.

Gardaí arrested 11 people for questioning in connection with the murder and took 250 detailed witness statements.

An extensive file was submitted to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions which, after detailed consideration, decided just last November that no prosecution was possible.