The victim of a shooting shared a can of beer with his killer moments before he was shot three times in the head, an inquest heard yesterday.
Vincent O’Brien (53) was shot multiple times as he sat on the couch in the living room of his house at Kilbride Grove, Bray, Co Wicklow, on August 10th, 2005.
Dublin Coroner’s Court heard that Mr O’Brien’s neighbours, Patrick and Breda Tobin, were watching television just after 10pm when they heard four loud bangs.
The gunman, who was wearing a baseball cap and a hooded top, was seen running past the Tobins’ house by a family friend immediately after the noise.
Ms Tobin rushed into Mr O’Brien’s house where she found him slumped on the couch, with wounds to the front and back of the head. She and another neighbour tried to help him.
Mr O’Brien was taken to St Columcille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown where he was pronounced dead.
State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy carried out the postmortem and found that Mr O’Brien had been shot three times in the head and once in the hand.
Det Garda Insp Frank Keenaghan told the court that gardaí were satisfied the shooting was carried out by a lone gunman who had spent some time in Mr O’Brien’s company and was known to him.
There were a number of beer cans in the room but Mr O’Brien had a relatively low level of alcohol in his system at the time of death.
“He had two Alsatians in the rear of the premises and they did not make strange at the lone gunman, which suggests he had been there on previous occasions,” he said.
Mr O’Brien’s life was not under threat at the time of the incident, however, gardaí were aware of an incident some years earlier and this had formed part of their investigation. No file has been submitted to the DPP, added Det Garda Insp Keenaghan, because there was insufficient evidence.
The jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing by a person unknown.