THE BLUE Ford Mondeo had a sticker on the back windscreen. "I'm for peace" it read, with a dove above the words.
In the same Dublin registered, unmarked car, Garda Jerry McCabe was murdered yesterday morning in what one Garda source described as "an execution".
According to one witness, the car was surrounded immediately after it was rammed from behind by a black Pajero jeep. A man stood on either side, shooting into the car, while two other men stood at the front. All wore balaclavas and all were armed.
There was no shouting during the incident, which took just minutes, according to gardai. However, Chief Supt Michael Fitzgerald told a press conference some "utterances" were heard by witnesses.
Just after 6 p.m. yesterday, the Garda car was taken away from the scene. There were two bullet holes in the windscreen, four in the driver's door frame and one through the driver's mirror. The tax disc on the passenger side of the wind screen was torn as if a bullet had ripped through it.
Both front windows were shattered, as well as the rear window on the passenger side. The rear of the car showed only a small dent, and the brake lights were intact. It appeared that the bumper had taken the force of the ramming.
On the driver's seat there was a woollen blanket. The body of Garda McCabe had been covered with a blanket before the whole car was covered. He had been sitting in the passenger seat.
Colleagues of Garda McCabe and his partner, Garda Ben O'Sullivan, said they could think of no reason why the two Special Branch officers would be the target for a paramilitary style execution. "They were just doing what they've been doing for 23 years."
Gardai said the two men had not received any threats or had any reason to believe they were being targeted. They would escort cash deliveries once a week, and both men would have signed in at Henry Street Garda station in Limerick at 6 a.m. Their shift would have finished at around lunchtime yesterday.
Garda O'Sullivan was due to go on leave today, and Garda McCabe was going on a foreign family holiday in a month.
A colleague, Det Garda Oliver Stapleton, described them as "two great policemen". Both joined the Special Branch on the same day in 1973 and had an easy friendship. "They were always joking with each other." Shortly after 6 a.m., when the two gardai would have reported for duty in Henry Street, witnesses reported seeing suspicious behaviour outside a hotel 1 1/2 miles outside Adare. It is understood that the black Pajero used to ram the Garda car was seen in the area.
A Garda source said both gardai would have dealt with paramilitary activities as part of their Special Branch work. "But it was nothing that would incur this kind of wrath."
Garda McCabe had been on another early patrol on Thursday morning.
