Three years for man who waved toy gun out window

A Dublin man who engaged armed gardaí in a stand-off in the hope that the officers would shoot him dead has been jailed for three years.

Darren Byrne, aged 44, was waving what was later found to be a toy handgun out his front window and threatening to shoot anyone who came near when gardaí arrived on the scene.

Det Garda Ciaran Kilcoyne and his two colleagues, all of whom were armed, took cover and called in the Emergency Response Unit, which later entered the house and arrested Byrne.

The court heard his elderly parents were downstairs during the incident.

Officers did not know the gun was fake until they found it in a bedroom after Byrne dropped it.

Det Gda Kilcoyne and his colleagues were praised in court for their bravery in handling the situation.

“My biggest concern was that myself or my colleagues would have committed an act which we would have to live with for the rest of our lives,” the detective told Judge Martin Nolan.

He said Byrne, who had been drinking and taking drugs, later said he wanted to die and hoped the officers would shoot him.

Judge Nolan suspended the last year of a four-year prison sentence. He said Byrne’s actions were “deeply reprehensible” and that the gardaí “exercised great restraint and common sense” during the stand-off.

Byrne, of New Bawn Drive, Tallaght, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to making threats to kill or cause serious harm to three gardaí at his home on August 1, 2013. A charge of making a false report was taken into consideration.

Det Gda Kilcoyne told prosecuting counsel Tony McGillicuddy BL that Byrne rang 999 and said he had a gun and would have a “shoot-out” with gardaí. He also said he had Aids and was going to shoot himself.

The three gardaí arrived on the scene and saw Byrne waving the gun out a window and threatening to shoot anyone who approached. The gardaí took cover behind the neighbour’s wall after Byrne told them to get back.

The Emergency Response Unit arrived a short time later and a decision was made to enter the house.

When entry was made, Byrne dropped the toy gun and ran into the bathroom where he was found by ERU officers. He was brought to hospital complaining of pain in his stomach and later arrested.

Defence counsel Sarah-Jane O’Callaghan said that Byrne came from a very troubled and disturbing family background and had a chronic alcohol problem.

Counsel added that Byrne’s former partner of five years died in tragic circumstances last Sunday and that the funeral has not yet taken place.