Gardai are hoping eyewitness accounts and a security camera will help them trace the killers of a man who was shot as he arrived for work in the south Dublin suburb of Churchtown yesterday morning.
In what gardai said was one of the most cold-blooded of recent Dublin killings, the attackers, described as two men in their 20s, waited in the car-park of the Premier Dairies plant at Whitehall Road for 10 minutes before their victim arrived.
The attackers sat in a parked Mitsubishi car almost directly under a security video camera. They were not masked, although one wore a baseball cap. During their wait, the two men were approached by a Premier Dairies security officer, to whom they spoke.
As the victim, a forklift driver employed by the dairy, arrived and got out of his car, a man stepped from the passenger side of the car and shot him twice at point-blank range. The victim died immediately.
Speaking at Tallaght Garda station, where gardai set up an incident room yesterday afternoon, Supt Tom Conway said he was hopeful that video footage from the security camera would be useful in tracking the killers.
He also confirmed that a dairy employee who was not the victim had spoken to the killers before the shooting.
The victim, in his mid-30s, was married and lived in Firhouse. Gardai said they would not release his name until his family had been notified. He was named locally as Mr Thomas Reilly.
Supt Conway said it was too early in the investigation to link the killing with other recent shootings in the Dublin area. He also said it was too early to suggest a possible motive, although sources contacted by The Irish Times say the victim may have been in dispute with local drugs suppliers over money.
Gardai have issued an appeal for information on both the car, which Supt Conway said was a grey or silver "Mitsubishi Lancertype car" with a 99 D registration, and the attackers.
"When they drove into the car-park, they were not masked. The driver was wearing a black or navy cap. We believe that he is in his mid-20s. The passenger we believe is also in his mid-20s, 56["] or 57["] in height. He had a slim build and was wearing a Gore-Tex jacket. They then drove out on to Whitehall Road and went in the direction of Nutgrove Avenue.
"At this stage our investigations are at a very early stage and we are ruling nothing in or ruling nothing out. We would appeal to anybody that may have seen that car or, indeed, anybody that saw anything at all suspicious in the Whitehall Road area, or in the immediate area prior to 9 a.m. yesterday morning, to contact us."
The telephone number of the incident room is 459-6596.
