A 14-YEAR-OLD youth, who had been stopped earlier while wearing a bulletproof vest, was being questioned by gardaí in Limerick last night following a second recent shooting in the St Mary's Park area of the city.
The teenager was arrested, but then released by gardaí just hours before the gun attack after he was stopped driving a car near the troubled estate while wearing a bulletproof vest.
The latest shooting in St Mary's Park took place at 6.15am yesterday when a shot was fired at a house on St Munchin's Street. The house was occupied, but nobody was injured in the attack.
There was a similar attack on another house in the same estate on Sunday morning.
The shootings occurred despite the presence of the Garda emergency response unit which was deployed to Limerick last weekend following a machine gun attack on six houses in St Mary's Park.
Two teenagers were seen running from the scene of yesterday morning's shootings, and a sawn-off shotgun was discovered by gardaí nearby. An 18-year-old youth and the 14-year-old were arrested at 10am in connection with the shooting and were being held for questioning yesterday under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
It has since emerged the 14-year-old was arrested just hours before the shooting, at 1.30am on Wednesday morning, driving a car along the Island Road after leaving the St Mary's Park area. He was wearing a bulletproof vest and gardaí discovered he was carrying a knife.
He was arrested and taken to Henry Street Garda station where he was questioned. He was released a short time later into the custody of adults.
Meanwhile, heroin worth about €92,000 and cocaine worth up to €10,000 were recovered on waste ground near St Munchin's Street in St Mary's Park during a series of searches carried out by gardaí on Tuesday afternoon. A sawn-off rifle and a quantity of ammunition were also recovered.
No arrests have yet been made in connection with these seizures but gardaí say their inquiries are continuing.