Rifles examined in bid to find child shooting gun
Forensic experts have examined 45 rifles in an attempt to trace the gun used in the shooting of a boy in a school playground, it was revealed today.
Most of them were handed over by farmers who own land close to where Darragh Somers, aged five, was hit in the back of the head by a .22 bullet.
His parents believe the shooting was accidental but today police were still urging the person who fired the shot to own up.
Chief Inspector Nigel Kyle said: “They, like everyone else, want this confirmation that Darragh, or their family, were not deliberately targeted.”
The little boy was shot in the school playground at St Patrick’s Primary School outside Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, in Northern Ireland, last Friday lunchtime.
He remains critically ill on a life support machine at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children where his parents Gerald and Jeannine are maintaining a bedside vigil.
Ballistic tests have been carried out on all the guns in a bid to match them with a .22 bullet which was removed from Darragh’s head. Police believe he was hit by someone shooting vermin in adjoining fields.
All the guns handed in are licensed and owned locally, but at least one belongs to a man who lives 15 miles away in Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone.
Nobody has been arrested for the shooting, but the little boy’s family also urged them today to own up.
Darragh’s grandmother Maureen Hallett said: “I believe myself, whoever did this, it was a pure accident. But the longer they leave it to admit it, the harder it becomes.”