Analysis:Monday's shooting of a man in Gort resembles the shooting of John Carthy at Abbeylara in 2000 in a number of respects. But there are significant differences in the Garda management of the two situations, writes Tom Clonan
Like Abbeylara, Monday's incident involved a stand-off between members of the Garda's Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and an individual armed with a shotgun. As in Abbeylara, the armed individual in Gort appears to have exited his house unexpectedly whilst armed, and, as at Abbeylara, an armed man was shot by members of the ERU.
Here the similarities end and there appear to be significant qualitative differences between the Garda's management of the situation in Gort and the botched operation at Abbeylara.
To begin with, unlike at Abbeylara, the trained Garda negotiator who spoke to Anthony Burke was not directly involved in the tactical operations. As such, he was free to concentrate on negotiations, which reached a semi-successful outcome when Mr Burke dumped a shotgun outside the house.
Unfortunately, Mr Burke unexpectedly exited the house approximately an hour later and opened fire with another shotgun at a set of arc lights that had been erected by gardaí to illuminate the scene. At this point it would appear Mr Burke was verbally challenged by a member of the ERU to discard his weapon. On failing to do so, according to Garda sources, Mr Burke was subsequently fired upon by a member of the ERU armed with a "less-than-lethal" flexible baton round - otherwise known as a "beanbag round".
This less than lethal option was not deployed by gardaí at the Abbeylara siege in 2000.Beanbag rounds are relatively inaccurate and have to be fired from close range.Given these constraints, a member of the ERU using such a weapon on an individual armed with a fully-loaded shotgun would of necessity have to place themselves at considerable risk to fire an effective disabling shot.
This required a member of the ERU to get within "shotgun-range" of the armed individual in order to discharge the beanbag round - which failed to disable him. It was at this point, according to Garda sources, that the garda in question found himself within range of the armed party and appeared - to his colleagues - to be in immediate danger of being fired upon.
According to Garda spokesman Supt Kevin Donohoe, at this point another ERU member discharged a live round from a sniper rifle at Mr Burke in an attempt to disable him.
In Abbeylara, gardaí discharged an assortment of relatively inaccurate, low-velocity weapons at John Carthy, including an Uzi sub-machine gun and a Sig automatic pistol. The initial live shot at Abbeylara failed to disable him. Subsequent shots - designed to halt his progress - injured him fatally.
The use of a single shot from a highly accurate and high-velocity sniper rifle on Monday night appears to have been sufficient to immediately disable Mr Burke.