An accused man had told gardai that no one was supposed to die after he shot dead another man during a pub brawl, the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
Det Insp Dominic Hayes, Harcourt Square, Dublin, told the court that in an interview the accused man had admitted the shooting, but said that before firing the gun he had told the deceased man to stop coming towards him.
"I pointed the sawn-off shotgun at him and told him to stop. I pulled the trigger when he kept coming at me", the Garda notes stated.
Mr David Thomas (34), of Cloonlara Crescent, Finglas, Dublin, has denied the murder of Mr Eamon O'Reilly (23), of Sandyhill Gardens, Ballymun, in a Finglas pub on January 11th, 1998.
Mr Thomas has also pleaded not guilty to assaulting two gardai and to seven charges of possession of firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury.
In a later comment to Det Sgt Patrick Flood, the accused man allegedly said "nobody was supposed to die", the court was told.
Previously, the court heard that on January 11th 1998 a fight broke out between the O'Reilly and Thomas families in a Finglas pub, which led to the shooting dead of Mr O'Reilly.
A number of days after Mr O'Reilly was shot dead, members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit and several other gardai went to an apartment where the accused man was believed to be in hiding.
Two ERU members were shot and wounded in the dawn raid, which ended with the arrest and detention of the accused man and several members of his family.
According to Garda notes, the accused man said that he did not know gardai were at the door on the morning of the raid. He believed that members of the O'Reilly family had come to the apartment seeking revenge.
As the door was being forced by Det Garda Fearghall Patwell, of the Special Detective Unit at Harcourt Square, "we all started to panic", the notes read.
According to the notes, Mr Thomas told gardai that he fired two shots from his shotgun in the direction of the entrance to the apartment. At the same time other family members looked over the apartment balcony and confirmed that gardai were trying to gain entry.
"When I heard that, I put the gun down. If I knew it was the gardai at the door, I wouldn't have fired the gun. I'm sorry I hit the garda. I'm happy that he will be OK", the notes read.
The State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, in evidence last week, said that the deceased man was shot with a shotgun at close range. He gave the cause of death as a right haemothorax, which is an accumulation of blood in the right lung.
The trial continues today before Mr Justice Butler and a jury of five men and seven women.