Detectives shot at during car chase, court hears

Armed detectives continued a high-speed chase of a getaway car despite believing they had been shot at, eventually arresting two gunmen, a High Court judge was told yesterday.

Former Detective Garda John Duignan told Mr Justice Michael White that the occupants of the getaway car threw a white towel and a Walther pistol out of the vehicle after bursting two tyres on a traffic bollard.

Mr Duignan, now a private investigator, told a Garda compensation hearing that he and driver Garda Robert Lambert were in an unmarked patrol car in April 2009 when they received a message about a speeding car having left the scene of a shooting in the Drimnagh area of Dublin.