A 29-year-old Limerick man has died in hospital after accidentally shooting himself in the head over the weekend.
It is understood Philip Collopy shot himself in the head at a house in St Mary’s Park in Limerick city around 2am on Saturday morning.
Gardaí said the armed Regional Support Unit, which was set up last year to tackle Limerick’s gangland violence, was on patrol in the area when a man ran out of the house and raised the alarm.
An ambulance was called and the injured man was taken to Limerick Regional Hospital, where he died at 8.30pm last night.
It is understood a Glock handgun and ammunition was recovered near where Mr Collopy was found.
Mr Collopy was believed to be one of the top figures in the feuding Keane-Collopy crime gang and had been a target of the Criminal Assets Bureau. He was jailed for two years for violent disorder in 2003.
However, he was also heavily involved in talks in the past year with the Dundon-McCarthy gang to secure a ceasefire between the two sides after several murders in their ongoing feud.