Limerick gardaí on high alert after shootings

Gardaí in Limerick are on high alert this weekend following a third serious shooting incident in the city in less than a week.

The latest gun attack happened last night when a man in his late 20s was shot in the back in the St Mary’s Park area of the city shortly before midnight.

The victim suffered minor wounds to his back from shotgun pellets. He was treated by ambulance personnel at Henry Street Garda station after refusing to go to hospital.

The man, who is from the St Mary’s Park area, told gardaí he was shot from behind by a man carrying a gun and had hidden for an hour in a bush before raising the alarm.

Gardaí believe this latest attack is not linked to any other shooting which took place in the same area earlier this week or to any gangland feuds.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, also in St Mary’s Park 26-year-old David Heighton was injured in the face and chest after being blasted with a shotgun.

Earlier that night, shortly before 6pm on Tuesday evening a number of shots were fired a house in St Mary’s Park shattering windows but no one was injured.

Gardaí are still investigating a link between both incidents. Last Sunday morning 22-year-old Aaron O’Brien from Delmege Park in Moyross, was shot in the stomach just yards from his home by a gunman armed with a rifle.

The 22-year-old underwent life-saving surgery at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital on Sunday in Limerick but is now in a stable condition.

A man was arrested on Thursday in connection with the incident and a file is being prepared for the DPP.

These latest shootings come just days after Limerick’s most senior garda Chief Supt Gerry Kelly revealed to Limerick City Council that one in every three shootings in Ireland happen in Limerick.

Last week the Chief Supt Kelly launched a number of new garda initiatives aimed at clamping down on public order crime in the city, including a new garda dog unit which will see gardaí on patrol with dogs in the city at night.

Two days ago, as part of their investigation into serious crime in the city, gardaí carried out a number of searches in which two sawn-off shot guns and 500 rounds of ammunition were seized in waste ground in the Moyross and Garryowen areas of the city.