Gardaí send two handguns found on Cork building site for ballistics and forensic tests

Gardaí have have sent two handguns found on a Cork building site for ballistics analysis to see whether they may be linked to a number of shootings in the city in recent years.

Investigators believe the two guns, a revolver and a semi-automatic pistol, were disturbed by workmen on a construction site at Ballincollie Road near Whites Cross on the city's northside.

The workmen had been carrying out some excavation work on a ditch and the guns were discovered on Wednesday evening by some local teenagers who alerted gardaí from Watercourse Road.

The scene was preserved for a technical examination and the weapons have been sent for forensic and ballistics analysis by Garda technical experts in Dublin to see if they were used in any crime.

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A detailed search of the area is currently being conducted by the Cork City Divisional Search Team and the Southern Region Dog Unit to see whether there are any other firearms in the area.

Gardaí said the weapons had some rust on them suggesting that they may have been at the site for some time but only the ballistics tests will reveal whether or not they were used in any shootings.

Gardaí would not be drawn until they receive the ballistics test results on whether the guns may have been used in the shooting of a man in his 40s in nearby Ballyvolane two years ago.

House

The man and his partner were getting out of his car outside his partner’s house at Chapelgate off Glenheights Road in Ballyvolane on November 29th 2019 when the lone gunman approached him.

The gunman, who was wearing a dark hoodie and what appeared to be a scarf, fired at the victim at least three times from close range with a handgun, hitting the victim in the body, arm and leg.

The victim and his partner managed to make it back into her house as the gunman fled on foot out of Chapelgate, back on to Glenheights Road from where he made good his escape.

The victim and his partner raised the alarm and armed members of the Regional Support Unit, who were first on the scene, treated the victim before paramedics arrived and took over his treatment.

The man was taken by ambulance to Cork University Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery for his gunshot wounds which were described as not life-threatening.

It was the second such attack on the man, who had also had a narrow escape on September 18th 2018 when a lone gunman fired a number of shots at the same man in the same estate.

The man was out walking his dog at Chapelgate on that occasion when a gunman approached and fired several shots but missed and the man was able to make his way to safety in a nearby house.

Gardaí launched formal investigations into both shootings even though the man made no complaint on either occasion but nobody has ever been arrested or questioned in relation to the shootings.