Double shooting prompts calls for probe

OPPOSITION politicians have demanded an independent investigation into garda failure to have a trained negotiator at the scene of a murder where the killer turned the shotgun on himself hours later.

Seven hours elapsed on Saturday between the fatal shooting at Coolgraney, St Mullins, Co Carlow, of computer graphics expert Jim Healy, 30, and the subsequent suicide of farmer Michael Kehoe, 38, the man who shot him in a bitter dispute over land.

Mr Kehoe had initiated civil legal proceedings against Mr Healy over a land deal, gardaí said, but would not confirm the nature of the action.