Mick Clifford: An Garda Síochána knew of holster safety issue before shootings of two gardaí
Detective garda Eddie Connell was injured when he accidentally shot himself with his standard-issue Walther. Six days later, Colm Horkan died: Both incidents are being linked to defective Garda-issued holsters. Picture: Moya Nolan
When Eddie Connell was shot, his belt may have saved his life. The bullet went through the belt but it tempered some of the velocity. Still, he was shot and he didn’t know if he was going to live.
Thirty-one years in the guards, 20 of those in the Special Detective Unit, and not a single day prepares you for this.
The pain in his crotch area was searing, like, he remembers, “as if somebody put a hot poker through you”.
He was lying on the road, blood pooling around him. His blood. He may have lost consciousness, but if so it was only briefly. In those initial moments, he was consumed by pain, shock, and an overwhelming fear.
“It’s a frightening place to be,” he says. “A dark place.
“The intense pain left quickly and then there was just pain and I could feel the blood pooling around me and I was in incredible stress because I thought I was going to die:
The medics thought so. When he arrived in St Vincent’s University Hospital, there was quickly a full cardiac team around him.
“I don’t know why they thought I was going to have a heart attack, but they must have as my heart was going through the roof at that stage. And there was blood everywhere.”
Detective Garda Eddie Connell was shot with his own weapon, a standard-issue Walther. The gun discharged as he was getting into his car outside the Israeli ambassador’s residence in Dublin on June 11, 2020.
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His experience within An Garda Síochána after the incident massively increased his trauma.
Instead of being comforted over a freak occurrence, he was, he believes, hounded.
That, he has concluded, was simply because the accident he was involved in exposed something that senior management simply didn’t want to contemplate.
Six days after Eddie Connell was shot, Detective Garda Colm Horkan was murdered in Castlerea, Co Roscommon, when Stephen Silver managed to disarm him and shoot him 11 times with his own weapon.
Both garda members were wearing holsters that had a flaw.
In both instances, there is a body of evidence that the shortcomings in the holster may have contributed to what occurred.
Last Thursday, the Horkan family released a statement calling for a public inquiry into the circumstances around Colm’s murder.
Horkans cite Eddie Connell's experience
They outlined questions that need to be answered in terms of the equipment he was sent out to work with that fateful night.
The statement also mentioned Eddie Connell.
“Only six days before this, Detective Garda Edward Connell suffered life-changing injuries by reason of this faulty holster. It was made of pliable leather. It did not have the necessary stability to prevent movement and removal of the gun from the holster.”
This opinion was backed by experts in firearm use within An Garda Síochána both before and after those six days in mid-June 2020.
Eddie Connell is from Ballymote in Co Sligo.
He joined An Garda Síochána in 1989 and was stationed in Coolock in Dublin.
He was promoted to detective and served in Ballymun before being appointed to the Special Detective Unit in 1999.
Much of the work consisted of accompanying dignitaries, including VIP visitors from abroad. By 2020, he had been assigned as personal escort for the Israeli ambassador.
“I enjoyed the job,” he says.
“It was week on, week off which suited me and I was well up for it.
"I’m a competent person and that’s what was required.”
On the day in question, he had arrived at the residence with the ambassador and then gone into the hut in the front garden occupied by one of his colleagues.
Emerging from the hut, he was getting into his car when the weapon discharged.
While still in hospital he was contacted by his district officer.
“I was told don’t worry about anything, that what happened was a work-related injury," he said.
But I was worrying. I was blaming myself. It’s the victim-blaming you go through.
"I didn’t do anything contrary to the firearms manual, but you wonder how it could have gone wrong.”
Connell didn’t know it at the time but there was already knowledge within An Garda Síochána about problems with the holster. A year previously a protected disclosure, originating in the armoury section of An Garda Síochána had alleged the holster was defective.
On the day after the incident outside the embassy, Eddie Connell’s firearm, hip holster, and magazine were delivered the Garda National Technical Bureau for forensic examination. This is standard practice. The bureau routinely examines firearms and ammunition in criminal investigations.
It has accredited testing and calibration laboratories that have achieved the recognised standard.
Separately, concerns were being expressed within the organisation.
“As you are aware this issue was raised before with [another officer] about this particular make of holsters and pouch,” the email read.
“This softer style was in both Sig and Walther [makes of firearms] configuration. It proved dangerous… I concur with your recommendation that this make of holster and pouch should be withdrawn for safety reasons.”
Colm Horkan was murdered the following day.
The fact that Stephen Silver had managed to disarm him raised further red flags about the holster.
One piece of correspondence from a senior officer dated June 22, 2020 — five days after the murder — referenced the problem again.
“Prior to the murder of D/Garda Horkan the sergeants attached to Firearms Training were looking into problems with the official issue leather holster and magazine pouch,” the mail read.
“I feel this now needs to be acted upon as a matter of urgency; I believe the issue had been flagged earlier and remedial work was carried out on the holster in order to make it more durable.
"However, the problem still exists in that when weapons are being holstered the leather gathers under the trigger guard and there is potential for an unintended discharge.”
That letter was accompanied by further correspondence from officers in the firearms training unit recommending that “these holsters and magazine pouches be removed from service on health and safety grounds”.
Apart from all that, the technical bureau did its testing of the holster as per usual in the wake of the accidental shooting at the ambassador’s residence.
The results — while entirely removed from, and independent of, the correspondence referenced above — largely agreed with the conclusions that the holsters were dangerous.
By that time, the issue was even more serious following Colm Horkan’s murder.
Then, following instructions from senior management, a second opinion was sought on the holster. Two officers who had experience but not expertise in firearms were asked to conduct their inquiry.
That ultimately found that there were flaws, but nothing that could have led to a firearm being discharged, or an assailant gaining easier access to a firearm.
Why a second opinion was sought has never been clarified.
Eddie Connell was unaware all of this was going on while he was recuperating. By then he had another problem. He was to be investigated for reckless discharge of his firearm.
Gsoc — the predecessor to Fiosrú, the Office of the Police Ombudsman — conducted its inquiry and referred the matter to management in An Garda Síochána with a recommendation that there may be a case for a disciplinary process.
Whatever about Gsoc, there was a surfeit of corporate knowledge within An Garda Síochána that there were major problems with Connell’s holster, which, at the very least, may have contributed to the discharge of the firearm.
Notwithstanding that, the disciplinary process went ahead.
Eventually, Gsoc determined there was no criminal matter involved but there may be a disciplinary issue, leaving a decision on that up to the garda commissioner.
Gsoc also informed Connell what it had discovered about the holster.
“They said there was a crease in the holster and it could be dangerous and could engage the trigger.”
He was, on one level, very relieved. “The nature of being a victim, when you blame yourself and the way I was being treated as if I was a wrong one. ‘He’s a wrong one, yeah,’ that’s how you could be regarded. At least that showed that I wasn’t to blame.”
Notwithstanding that, a disciplinary process went ahead in An Garda Síochána. At one point, Connell was told he could no longer receive sick pay as the injury was then not being considered work-related. He says:
It would be over two years and protracted legal correspondence before he got his wages back. The outcome was that he was in breach of discipline, with a sanction of “advice”, which is effectively the issuance of a mild warning.
He is challenging that finding in the Workplace Relations Commission.
He also submitted a protected disclosure about the incident in 2020 that changed his life, in light of all he has learned since. The handling of his protected disclosure echoes with that of the other garda whistleblowers who have been in the media recently.
“I was just doing a day’s work,” he says. “Just like Colm Horkan. And then when they find out there was something wrong with the equipment they want to bury it.
"I was to be got rid of because I had become a problem. Just because I was shot. Anything to avoid the scandal. Just keep burning on.”
Detective Garda Connell has been on sick leave since the incident in June 2020.
A spokesperson for An Garda Síochána said the organisation does not comment on protected disclosures that may or may not have been made and public inquiries are a matter for the minister.
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