Murder accused told gardaí: 'One of your guys died, accept it and move on', trial told
When detectives later asked Stephen Silver (pictured) if he killed Garda Horkan, the accused replied: "I did not kill him. He died at his own hand with his own gun. The bullets killed him. They were his own bullets." File picture
Garda murder accused Stephen Silver told officers during interviews held the day after the shooting that Detective Garda Colm Horkan was “fumbling around like a fucking eejit” with his gun and was a "fucking prick".
The accused man told detectives: "Now he’s dead and I’m alive and you’re making a huge fucking deal out of it.” The accused told detectives that he acted in self-defence after being attacked by a man he did not know.
He said it wasn’t fair that he was just going for a pizza with a friend when he was “attacked by one of your gardaí with a gun. Do you not think there is a little problem here? A man going to Apache Pizza is terrorised when all he wants is a fucking pizza.”
He said that he had been put in a cell because “one of your guys tried to shoot me” and asked, “Why are you terrorising me?”
Mr Silver (46), a motorbike mechanic from Aughavard, Foxford, Co. Mayo, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Det. Garda Horkan knowing or being reckless as to whether he was a member of An Garda Siochana acting in accordance with his duty. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, at Castlerea, Co. Roscommon on June 17, 2020.
The jury in his trial on Thursday watched DVD recordings of two interviews Mr Silver gave to Detective Sgt Brian Hanley and Detective Garda Paddy Farrell of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) at Castlerea Garda Station on June 18, one day after the fatal shooting.
Mr Silver told the detectives that during the confrontation Gda Horkan told him he was a garda but, the accused added:
He said he saw the detective's gun but added: “I didn’t know he didn’t know how to use it. I see it all over the shop here today, lack of training, fucking incompetence.” When asked why he shot the garda when he could have run away once he had taken the gun from Gda Horkan, he said that Gda Horkan "started fucking shooting, it's his gun, he pulled it from his holster."
The detective asked: "Why did you not walk away when you had possession of the gun?" Mr Silver replied: "Why would I walk away with a gun?" He said that he doesn't like guns and asked: "What was I expected to do? You fucking idiots are around here fucking shooting people going to Apache Pizza, that's nuts lads, fucking nuts."
He said he had "done nothing wrong, all I did was defend myself against an armed assailant. If that's my crime, that's my crime. I defended myself against an armed assailant on my way to Apache Pizza. If I'm not allowed to do that, what am I allowed to do? I'm beyond annoyed."
When detectives pushed him on what happened with the gun, he said: “That was adrenaline. There was no intent man… I didn’t know what the fuck was going on there last night and that’s the truth.”
He said that he tries to “do good in this world” and that he was doing nothing wrong when “gardaí shot at us and tried to fucking kill us, now do you see what’s wrong with this picture?” He added: “One of your guys died, accept it and move on. There’s no case to solve. Self-defence and that’s it.”
At one point in the interview, he told gardaí that Gda Horkan “shot himself” with his own gun and claimed that he, Mr Silver, was “set up”. He added: “Why would you want to shoot a man going to fucking Apache Pizza after work? I want an answer to it because it’s not fucking on.”
“Why was I attacked on the corner of the fucking street last night? That’s what you should be looking at. Not that I was holding for a few seconds the gun that could have fucking killed me.”
When detectives later asked Mr Silver if he killed Gda Horkan, the accused replied: "I did not kill him. He died at his own hand with his own gun. The bullets killed him. They were his own bullets."
He said he was defending himself and described Gda Horkan as the aggressor. He added: "There is no doubt I ended up with possession of the gun. Once I had it, I threw it as far away from me as possible."
Mr Silver also complained that gardaí were breaching his human rights by leaving him waiting for a glass of water in his cell and by refusing to allow him to wear his glasses in his cell. He said he had been kept awake for over 30 hours, was sleep-deprived and stressed. He complained about the “crap” food he had been given.
He said:
He told gardaí that he has been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and had received no medication while being “stressed out” by gardaí. He added that he had not taken his medication since the previous September, saying he didn’t need to “because there was nobody annoying the shit out of me”.
In his second interview he told gardaí: “I want to be at home eating my fucking dinner, doing a day’s work, what the fuck like? I work for a fucking living." Pointing to his arms he added: "These muscles, they didn’t come from the gym that comes from fucking work.”
When gardaí later put it to him that he had shot Gda Horkan while the garda was on the ground, Mr Silver said the detectives were wrong. One of the interviewers said that previously during his interviews Mr Silver had said that he, Mr Silver, was "standing and he [Gda Horkan] was down and it was bang bang bang, in case he got up. Am I wrong?” Mr Silver responded: “Yes you are.” The garda told him, “It’s all recorded, every sound is recorded on the DVD.”
The trial continues on Friday in front of Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of seven men and five women.
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