Garda was shot in shoulder while climbing over furniture barricade

It was still dark yesterday morning when a group of around 20 gardai, some armed and wearing bullet-proof vests, arrived at the Richmond apartment complex off North Brunswick Street.

The group of officers entered the apartment block, past an intercom system, without alerting the occupants of apartment number 66 on the third floor. When they reached the apartment door an officer shouted a warning that they were armed. It was about 5.50 a.m. There was no response from inside.

Gardai forced the apartment door, which had been barricaded with furniture. They then forced a door of a room, also barricaded, and as Det Garda Fergal Patwell from the Garda Emergency Response Unit (ERU) was climbing over the barricade a single shot was fired. Garda Patwell was wearing a bullet-proof vest and was injured in the shoulder. His ERU colleague, Det Sgt John Gantly, was hit in the face with shotgun pellets.

The officers brought the wounded men out of the apartment and threw two stun grenades inside. Some time later, the men were taken down to the front of the apartment block, cautioned, arrested and handcuffed.

The Richmond complex is less than two years old. Many of the residents are young professionals, and neighbours said few people knew each other. A young man said he heard a bang around 6 a.m. and a lot of shouting immediately after a second bang.

One woman said she heard "an awful lot of fighting, screaming and shouting and what I would assume was gunfire. I actually thought it was just people drinking too much."