Gardaí investigating the death of a rugby player in Limerick over the weekend have renewed their appeal for information on the attack.
The body of Shane Geoghegan (28) was discovered at the rear of a house in the Clonmore area of the Kilteragh housing estate in Dooradoyle at 1.45am yesterday.
Gardaí are seeking help from anyone who may have been in the area late on Saturday night and in the early hours of Sunday morning who may have seen a dark-coloured Renault car in the area around the time of the attack.
"We have a sighting of a dark blue or black Renault Espace in the area, and we are certainly anxious to talk to anyone who would have seen that car in and around the estate on that night, or indeed any vehicle matching that description that would have tweaked anyone's interest in the preceding days or weeks," said Superintendent Kevin Donoghue.
The car is believed to have been stolen three to four weeks earlier in the Limerick area and hidden until the weekend.
Speaking on RTÉ radio earlier today, Supt Donoghue said gardaí did not know of any reason why Mr Geohegan would have been targeted.
"This was certainly a tragic case. At this stage of our investigation we see no reason as to why Shane Geoghegan would have been targetted or would have been killed in this way," Supt Donoghue told RTÉ's Morning Ireland. "Until we found out who killed him and why anything beyond that is speculative."
The preliminary results of a post mortem carried out yesterday confirmed Mr Geoghegan had died from a gunshot wound. Supt Donoghue said the investigation was progressing well, with about 40 officers directly involved, but said the community needed to come forwward to assist them.
"It's important in all of these incidents to say we're merely policing on the community's behalf and there are people in the community in Limerick and society generally who have information in respect of crime," he said.
"As long as those people stay silent it makes our job particularly difficult."
Minister for Defence and Fianna Fáil TD for Limerick East, Willie O'Dea this afternoon described the death of Mr Geoghegan as "unspeakable."
"There's a palpable sense of shock right throughout the community from last night...it's a horrific case, a perfectly innocent young man, a well-known local rugby player from a well-known local family, obviously mistaken for someone else and shot down. It's unspeakable," said Mr O'Dea.
The Minister said he was confident that those who had killed Mr Geoghegan would be apprehended.
"There's no more successful units than the detective unit in Limerick at detecting serious crime and putting away serious criminals and I've every confidence that the gardai in Limerick will track down the people responsible for this and take them off the streets for many a long day to come," he added.
Fine Gael's spokesman on justice Charlie Flanagan today called for tougher sentences for convicted murders and the appointment of a full-time assistant garda commissioner for Limerick in the wake of the latest attack.
“The ongoing anarchy in parts of Limerick demands a specific response from the Government. An Assistant Commissioner should be appointed to Limerick to co-ordinate Garda efforts in the city. The gardaí in Limerick must get all the resources they need to put criminals out of business, including 24-hour monitoring and sophisticated electronic surveillance methods," Mr Flanagan said.
He is seeking the introduction of a minimum 25-year jail term for murder, saying that the average sentence between 1996 and 2006 was just 13 years.
Book of Condolences have been opened today by Limerick City Council in City Hall, Limerick in memory of Mr Geoghegan who will be buried in Mungret Cemetery after requiem mass in St Joseph's Church, O'Connell Avenue, on Wednesday at 11am.
