Nkencho family calls on coroner to investigate racial link to killing

The inquest should examine if the discharge of firearms was necessary, counsel for the Nkencho family said

George Nkencho's parents Blessing and Frank and his sister Grateful (right), speak to the media outside the RDS on Monday following the opening of the inquest into the death of George Nkencho, who was shot dead by armed Gardai last December. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

The family of George Nkencho, who was fatally shot by gardaí at his west Dublin home last year, has called on the Dublin City Coroner to conduct a wide examination to consider if his death was linked to racial policing and discrimination.

Counsel for the family, Seán Rafter BL, told an inquest into the death of Mr Nkencho (27) which opened at the Dublin Coroner’s Court at the RDS in Ballsbridge on Monday that his family wanted the coroner, Dr Myra Cullinane, to look at the wider and broad policing issues beyond the specific circumstances of his death to examine the shooting “of a black man at the hands of white police officers.”