The victim: Anthony Campbell:The Christmas decorations on the homes at St Michan's House flats complex, near the Four Courts in Dublin, were at odds with the sombre mood that prevailed there yesterday.
As darkness descended on Greek Street, one family and the close-knit community in which they lived were trying to come to terms with the tragic loss of one of their own.
Anthony Campbell, a 20-year-old apprentice plumber who lived in block F of the flats, was gunned down as he went about his work in a house at Scribblestown Park, Finglas, north Dublin yesterday morning.
As he left for work yesterday, he would have had no idea that he was about to become the latest victim of a violent feud in the criminal underworld he would only have read about in newspapers.
Such was the swift, indiscriminate and chilling nature of the attack that he probably never realised why he was being killed. The cruel twist of circumstance that led to his death saw him shot in the house of a relative of a major crime boss because he would have been a witness to the killing of that criminal. Gardaí said he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Neighbours of Mr Campbell's family were still in shock, to the extent that many of them were unable to talk about him.
Those who were willing to talk spoke of a "great lad", a hard-working and popular member of a close community. Mr Campbell had two younger brothers and one younger sister. He was also very involved in sports.
"It's awful sad," said a neighbour. "It's terrible to think that a young lad just doing a day's work would get shot, the same age as my grandson, who's a plumber as well."
The Campbell family was being comforted by friends and neighbours last night.