Man tells gardaí how he fired shotgun fatally injuring friend

Gardaí enquiring into the death of a 41-year-old man in a shooting incident in Cork believe technical tests will determine the direction their investigation will take.

Diarmuid Byrne died instantly after he suffered a gunshot wound to the head while with a friend in an upstairs room of his house at Plunkett Road in Ballyphehane, Cork, on Tuesday.

The friend, who is also in his early 40s, rang the emergency services but Mr Byrne, a single man who lived alone, was pronounced dead at the scene by a local doctor.

Traumatised

The friend, who was deeply traumatised, explained to gardaí he had discharged Mr Byrne’s legally held shotgun without realising the weapon was loaded and had accidentally shot Mr Byrne.

Mr Byrne’s body was examined at the scene by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster before it was removed to the morgue at Cork University Hospital for a postmortem yesterday.

According to Garda sources, the direction of the investigation will be determined by both the results of Dr Bolster’s postmortem as well as forensic tests on the shotgun.

Ballistics

Gardaí are hoping the postmortem will be able to confirm where Mr Byrne was, relative to his friend, when the shotgun was discharged.

They also believe a ballistics and technical examination of the single-barrel, semi-automatic shotgun and the cartridges will be critical in their investigation.

Gardaí said they were, for operational reasons, not releasing the postmortem results and it is understood forensic tests on the shotgun and ammunition may take some days to complete.

Local public representatives paid tributes to Mr Byrne, saying he and his family were well respected.