Gardaí last night launched a murder investigation after a 28-year-old man, who was attacked in Clondalkin on Friday night, died of his injuries in Tallaght hospital yesterday evening.
One of two men held by gardaí in relation to the attack has been released, pending further investigation. However, the second man was still being held last night. The two men, believed to be in their 20s and related to one another, were picked up by gardaí in the early hours of Saturday morning at Leyland Drive in Clondalkin.
The murdered man, John Cunningham, was a petty criminal and had an address at Kiltilawn, Tallaght. He was married with one child. It is understood that a group of five people, travelling in two cars, approached him at the junction of New Nangor Road and Fonthill Road at 8.15pm on Friday. Gardaí are satisfied that it was not a random attack.
Gardaí in Clondalkin last night appealed to anyone who may have witnessed the attack, or who may have information, to contact Clondalkin Garda station.
They are anxious to talk to the three remaining people thought to have been part of the group who approached the deceased.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that a Dublin man found murdered in Wicklow on Friday morning was the intended victim of a shooting in a Dublin pub in September, during which an innocent bystander was wounded.
Owen McCarthy (22), from Ashwood Park, Clondalkin, previously had his legs broken by the people suspected of murdering him last week, but did not make a complaint to gardaí because he feared for his life. His parents' home, where he still lived, was also targeted recently by those suspected of his murder. The dead man, who was a drug user and transporter of drugs for a west Dublin drugs gang, was drinking in a pub in September with a well-known drug dealer now implicated in his murder.
Gardaí believe this man organised two gunmen to enter the pub and shoot him. However, the two attackers sent a third man to the pub to check the exact position of their target. By the time the attackers entered the pub, Mr McCarthy and the man he was with had moved to another area. A member of the public who had moved to the area where the two men had been drinking was shot mistakenly - but survived.
Mr McCarthy's body was found by a passing motorist at 7.40am on Friday at Annalecka Bridge, Ballinagee, on the main Hollywood to Glendalough road. He had been shot in the head.Gardaí believe he was taken to a remote location by people known to him, and shot at the scene.