A THREE-MAN gang armed with at least one handgun were watching the movements of Séamus McMahon (41) before he was shot dead in Dundalk on Sunday evening, it has emerged.
McMahon had associations in the past with the provisional movement and in more recent years with the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA. Gardaí are not ruling out a possible dissident link to the murder. Other possible motives are being looked at including possible criminal links particularly because of the way in which the shooting was carried out.
The two men who went into the apartment to shoot him did not use the most direct exit from the Saltown estate. Instead it appears they scaled a 6ft high wooden fence that led to another garden and then ran through a second garden and scaled another 6ft fence before having to climb a concrete boundary wall to get to the getaway car.
McMahon was previously charged with being a member of the IRA although he was later acquitted at the Special Criminal Court.
He was originally from the Greenacres area of Dundalk and was visiting a female friend who lived in the apartment.
Gardaí yesterday appealed for information on the car the two gunmen escaped in.
Garda Supt John Gilligan said, “opposite the entrance to the estate there was a parked white car; we believe it was possibly a Toyota Corolla or Nissan Almera. It was facing towards the Fatima direction and [was] there sometime before 7pm.” It was still bright at that time and gardaí are hoping to hear from local people who may have seen the car or its occupants.
The two gunmen knocked at the door of the ground floor apartment at about 6.55pm and when the door was opened they ran in, pushed the woman to one side and opened fire on McMahon who was in the bathroom.
He died about an hour later in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.
He had been in the apartment for a number of hours beforehand and is believed to have been a visitor to it in recent times.
Anyone with information on the killing is asked to contact gardaí on 042-9388470 or 042-9388471.