GARDAÍ ARE investigating if the shooting dead of 35-year-old businessman Roy Collins in Limerick city yesterday may be linked to threats made against his family four years ago when his cousin gave evidence in court against a leading McCarthy-Dundon gang member.
Two men, aged 19 and 22, were last night being questioned about the murder. One of the men is a key suspect in the investigation into the mistaken identity murder of rugby player Shane Geoghegan in Limerick last November.
Mr Collins, whose father Steve Collins owns a number of Limerick pubs, was shot in the back just after midday in the Coin Castle Jackpot arcade in Roxboro Shopping Centre in the city.
The arcade is next door to the Steering Wheel Pub, which is owned by the Collins family, and is across the road from Roxboro Garda station.
A masked gunman and an accomplice walked into the arcade and shot Mr Collins in the back with a handgun as customers looked on. The bullet exited the victim’s chest.
Mr Collins was rushed to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital and was at first expected to survive. He was the father of two girls, Shannon (12) and Charlie (8).
Mr Collins’s first cousin is Ryan Lee. The men were reared as brothers after Mr Collins’s father, Steve, became Ryan Lee’s legal guardian many years ago.
Mr Lee was shot in the family pub, Brannigan’s Bar, in 2005 after he refused to serve the 14-year-old sister of leading Limerick gang figure Wayne Dundon.
Mr Lee gave evidence against Wayne Dundon, who was jailed in 2005 for his threats to Mr Lee’s life.
During the trial Mr Collins received an anonymous letter threatening his staff and family and reminding him of all of the other victims of gun violence in the city.
Brannigan’s Bar was burned down a month after Dundon’s conviction and Mr Lee and the Collins family were given Garda protection. Gardaí are now investigating if the threats from that time are linked to yesterday’s murder.
A team of local detectives and officers from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation have been assembled under Assistant Commissioner Kevin Ludlow to investigate yesterday’s murder. A Mercedes getaway car was found partially burned out in Rosbrien. Two shotguns were recovered last night, but neither was the murder weapon.
Mr Collins was from Monaleen, Limerick, but was living in Killaloe, Co Clare.
The mayor of Limerick city, John Gilligan, said the killers were “animals”.
“These people have stepped outside the bounds of humanity killing anyone that gets in their way. They will have to be taken out of society and if the gardaí need more resources to do this then the Minister for Justice will just have to supply them.”