Mr John Carthy, the man shot dead by gardaí during the Abbeylara siege, challenged gardaí to enter his house after hearing a radio news item about the siege, the Barr tribunal has heard.
Garda Eugene Dunne told the tribunal that he was posted at the wall outside and to the left of the Carthy house when he heard the 11 p.m. news broadcast coming from inside the house.
"There was loud music on the radio, it was turned up very loud to 2FM.
"I heard the news at 11 p.m. and it stated that gardaí had surrounded a house in Abbeylara and there was a man inside with a firearm.
"When he (Mr Carthy) heard that he started shouting, 'come in lads, come on in'."
When asked by the tribunal chairman, Judge Robert Barr, if Mr Carthy was making a genuine request of the gardaí to come into the house or if he was taunting them, Garda Dunne replied: "I took it as a taunt."
The Garda Emergency Response Unit had arrived at the scene by this time, and the radio broadcast stated that the gardaí were armed, Garda Dunne said.
The broadcast happened within five hours of the beginning of the siege, and was the first news programme that Garda Dunne was aware Mr Carthy had heard.
Garda Dunne told the tribunal that earlier in the evening Mr Carthy had shot at him from the gable window of his house.
"There were two or three shots I heard one shot very close. I heard a whoosh noise very close over my head."
When asked if he thought Mr Carthy had been aiming at him, Garda Dunne said he believed he was.
The shots had occurred at around 7.45 p.m. Garda Dunne had been positioned within view of the gable window of Mr Carthy's house until the ERU arrived shortly before 10 p.m.
He said that he had been armed but had not had a flak jacket, helmet or any protective equipment.
Meanwhile a uniformed garda, who was stationed approximately 500 yards from the scene when Mr Carthy was shot by gardaí in the road outside his home, has disputed the timing of the shots which killed the 27-year-old man.
Garda Seamus Barrett told the tribunal that he is certain he heard three shots just after 6 p.m. as they coincided with the beginning of the evening news.
All other garda witnesses have put the time of the shots at 10 to 15 minutes earlier.
Garda Barrett said he had been stationed with Garda Gerald Dunleavy at the Springtown side of Abbeylara some 450 to 500 yards from Mr Carthy's house and they had been given a radio by one of the neighbours.
Garda Dunleavy told the tribunal that he remembered listening to the radio but said he could not recall what was being broadcast at the time of the shots.
Garda Dunleavy said the previous evening he had been stationed at the back of Burke's house, to the right of Carthy's, when he heard a shot hit the hedge between the two houses.
This is the first time a witness has mentioned a shot being fired in this direction.
All other shots fired by Mr Carthy came from the front or opposite side of the house.
