'Almost suicidal' man wanted gardai to shoot him

An “almost suicidal” man who held an imitation handgun under a man’s chin wanted gardai to shoot him, a court has heard.

Daniel Martin (26) told gardai “you should have shot me, you should have shot me” after they kicked down the door to his home to arrest him.

He was brought to the ground by gardai. Martin told them he’d had a bad year and had been fighting with his girlfriend. “I don’t care what happens to me,” he said.

He was jailed for four years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court

Martin of Brookview Gardens, Tallaght pleaded guilty to attempted robbery, threat to kill Diarmuid Johnson and possession of a firearm at Malachi Road, Dublin 7 on May 24, 2011.

Detective Garda Mark Buckley agreed with John Aylmer SC, defending, that Martin had made a 999 call to say shots had been fired and to bring gardai into the area.

The garda told Shane Costello BL, prosecuting, that Sarah Breslin, who was living on Malachi Road saw a woman, who she believed was Martin’s partner, walking away while pushing a child in a pram. Martin had been shouting after her but she was ignoring him.

Martin, who was holding a firearm, spotted Ms Breslin, and shouted: “Don’t even think about ringing the gardai or I’ll shoot the whole road out.”

The court heard the firearm was a 6mm air pistol designed to closely resemble a Glock handgun and which legally qualifies as a firearm.

Martin then walked towards Mr Johnson who had just parked up his girlfriend’s jeep and pushed the pistol under the man’s chin, saying: “Do you think I am messing?”

He demanded the keys of the jeep but Mr Johson said he didn’t own it. He managed to push Martin and called gardai as he was running away.

Mr Johnson told gardai he thought Martin was going to blow his head off and he was going to die.

Det Garda Buckley said when they arrived on the scene Martin had gone back into his house and was pointing a gun through a window at gardai.

Gardai shouted “armed gardai” before they kicked the door in to find Martin standing in front of them in the hallway. They managed to bring him to the ground and arrest him.

Mr Aylmer said his client was “almost suicidal” on the night and was on a cocktail of pills and beer.

He said: “It was himself that he wanted to harm but he ended up very seriously harming the victims”

Judge Martin Nolan said because of his personal problems Martin had pointed a gun at two armed gardai to “entice” them to shoot him.

He sentenced Martin, whose 42 previous convictions include assault causing harm, drug dealing and possession of a knife, to four years imprisonment.