DET Garda Ben O'Sullivan is lucky to be alive, according to the garda leading the investigation, Chief Supt Michael Fitzgerald.
At a press conference in Limerick yesterday he described how the gunmen shot and injured Det Garda O'Sullivan and killed his partner, Det Garda Jerry McCabe.
The gunmen got out of a jeep they had used to ram the parked Garda car, and "almost immediately they started to fire shots into the patrol car," he said. They were wearing military fatigues and balaclavas.
It was unclear if there were four or five members in the gang. According to a Garda source, one witness said four of the men stood around the car, two shooting in from either side, and the other two standing in front.
It is not clear if the fourth man was the driver of the getaway car, or if there was a fifth member waiting in the car.
The gang abandoned the Pajero and the open postal lorry, believed to have contained up to £100,000. They sped off in a waiting car in the direction of Rathkeale.
Chief Supt Fitzgerald said the Garda had not ruled out paramilitary involvement, but at this stage in the investigation it was too early to confirm it.
A Garda source said four known IRA members living near Adare had been missing since Thursday.
Det Garda McCabe died from multiple gunshot wounds, and his body was taken to Limerick Regional Hospital, where Det Garda O'Sullivan is in intensive care.
He was shot in the shoulder and had what seemed to be a bullet graze on his right cheek. "Ben is lucky to be alive."
Gardai found the getaway car, a silver Mitsubishi with false Dublin plates, at 2.30 p.m. The car had been abandoned at Chalk's Cross on the road from Bruff to Kilmallock, about eight miles from Adare. They found an incendiary device in the back.
After finding the car gardai discovered a further two devices in the jeep used in the ramming. Chief Supt Fitzgerald would not say if the devices had been primed.
An immediate alert was issued after the incident, and by 7.30 a.m. "there was quite an amount of people on the ground". The Air Corps helicopter from Baldonnel was flying at 8 a.m.
He said it was possible that the gang was hiding out in safe houses or isolated areas, and appealed for information.
Chief Supt Fitzgerald appealed to anyone who passed by Woodlands House, a hotel just over a mile from Adare, between 6.30 and 7 a.m. or might have seen any recent activity of a suspicious nature.
The investigation team held a conference last night and is expected to continue visiting the homes of suspects today.
An incident room has been set up in Limerick Garda station. There is a freephone confidential telephone line on 1800 666 111.
The sequence of events was as follows:
. 6 a.m. Det Gardai Jerry McCabe and Ben O'Sullivan start their shift at Henry Street Garda station in Limerick
. 6.30 a.m. The An Post lorry leaves the GPO in Henry Street escorted by the two gardai. They drive behind in an unmarked car.
. 6.30 a.m. At the Woodlands House Hotel, about a mile on the opposite side of Adare, locals notice suspicious activity. A man, described as stocky and clean cut, is seen with a car.
. 6.55 a.m. As soon as they pull up outside the post office in Adare to make the first cash drop the Garda car is rammed from behind by a black Pajero jeep. Men jump out of the jeep and two stand on either side of the car shooting with rapid fire rifles. Another two men stand in front.
. The men run to a silver Mitsubishi car which has pulled up near the post office lorry. This car speeds off in the Rathkeale direction.
. Shortly after 7 a.m. Garda McCabe is pronounced dead and covered with a blanket. Garda O'Sullivan is taken to Limerick Regional Hospital with a gunshot wound to his shoulder and bullet graze on his face.
. 1.35 p.m. Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster, arrives to carry out her preliminary examination.
. 2.30 p.m. Gardai find a silver Mitsubishi car, with false Dublin plates, in an isolated area 10 miles from Adare. The car contains one incendiary device.
. Around 3 p.m. the body of Garda McCabe is removed from the car, put in a coffin and driven away in a hearse.
. 3.45 p.m. Gardai clear the area around the scene in Adare telling people a suspect device has been found. They find two incendiary devices in the Pajero.
. 4 p.m. Gardai hold a press conference in Limerick.
. 6.15 pm. The car in which the two gardai were shot is removed from the scene. The jeep had been removed earlier.
