New York police are investigating the killing of an apartment block supervisor from Co Clare.
John Kelly (43), from Sixmilebridge, was shot once in the back of the neck on Sunday night outside the Bronx building where he worked and lived.
Mr Kelly, a married father of two girls and a boy, was shot with a low calibre weapon in the Throggs Neck area of the Bronx, near Long Island Sound.
A long-term resident of the building said Mr Kelly had just finished taking down the building's Christmas lights with his nine-year-old son when he was shot.
The resident, who did not want to be named for fear of retribution, said he had spoken to Mr Kelly just half an hour before his death.
"I thanked him for being so generous with heating oil for the building when so many other buildings were cutting back because of the price of oil.
"That's the kind of decent guy they killed," he said.
He described Mr Kelly as a loving husband to his wife, Anne, and a devoted father to his three children. Mr Kelly emigrated 20 years ago.
Police made routine inquiries with residents from a nearby building. Mr Kelly had previously told some residents there not to dispose of waste so close to the building he supervised. Police said they had no definite suspects.
Mr Kelly's son had taken the Christmas lights into the family's apartment and his father had returned outside to pick up a ladder when the assailant struck.
A bus driver spotted Mr Kelly's body lying on the ground. A young woman who lived in the apartments, called emergency services but Mr Kelly died in hospital an hour later.
Mr Kelly also worked as an electrician and part-time barman.
Mike Sullivan, owner of nearby Jimmy Ryan's pub where Mr Kelly worked on Friday nights, said that he was an accomplished amateur golfer who had competed in the US Amateur Open qualification round in Long Island, New York last year.
"When you consider he was up against guys in college who were practising their game every day, that's quite an accomplishment," he said.
He added that Mr Kelly was a skilled hurler who had played with Clare in New York city competitions in the 1980s against hurlers from other county clubs.