Man was shot near sister’s house

A 29-year-old man was shot near his sister’s house by a lone attacker, an inquest heard yesterday.

Richard McCormack, a father of one, from St Ronan’s Drive in Clondalkin, Dublin, was shot multiple times in the front and back on Mar 8, 2008.

Dublin Coroner’s Court heard that the deceased had been talking to his sister Rose McCormack outside her home on St Ronan’s Close at around 8.30pm.

Ms McCormack said her brother seemed “a little bit lost”, but he did not say that he was in fear of his life. The deceased was walking away when he was shot.

In his deposition, neighbour Jonathan O’Reilly described seeing Mr McCormack trying to protect himself as the gunman fired.

“Richie staggered backwards and held his hands up as if to protect himself. The guy kept walking toward him. He must have fired 10 or 11 shots,” he said.

Ms McCormack had just gone inside her house when she heard the shots and rushed out.

“I ran straight toward him. He said to me ‘get me ambulance, get me ambulance, get me ambulance’.

“When I got to him I held him and asked him to sit down. Eventually he couldn’t stand anymore. He was finding it very hard to breathe, like he was drowning. He then collapsed on the ground on his back. I saw blood coming from his right leg near his groin. I pulled up his top, he was chest bare, and he had what looked like a cigarette burn on his stomach. There was no blood coming from it.”

His brother Eddie McCormack came out of his nearby house when he heard the gunfire. He chased after the gunman, who made his escape through an adjacent laneway.

Shortly after, a witness saw the gunman getting into the passenger side of a waiting car on St Ronan’s Way which was then driven away by a second man.

Mr McCormack was taken to Tallaght Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 10pm.

State pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy carried out the autopsy and found that Mr McCormack had been shot multiple times to the front and back of his chest. The cause of death was gunshot wounds to the trunk.

Detective Inspector Richard McDonnell told the court that despite an extensive investigation in which 500 lines of inquiry were pursued and 216 statements taken, nobody has ever been charged in relation to the homicide.

He said it was a targeted shooting and that a “considerable amount of planning” had gone into the attack.

The jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing by person or persons unknown.