Gardaí are examining the criminal background of a man shot dead in a gangland-style attack in an effort to establish a motive for the murder.
The victim has not yet been named by the Garda but has been named locally as father of four Andy Connors.
The 45-year-old was shot dead at his home at Botherboy, Saggart, south Dublin, at around 11pm yesterday by a gunman who called to the front door of the house.
It is understood the victim’s wife and four children were at home when he was killed and that some of the family witnessed the fatal shooting.
The victim, who was known to gardaí, was shot a number of times in the upper body by a gunman armed with a handgun.
Gardaí believe the killer was aided by others, and was brought to and from the scene by at least one accomplice.
The victim survived the initial shooting. The emergency services were alerted immediately and gardaí and paramedics arrived at the house quickly.
However, while he was given emergency medical attention at the scene by the paramedics and taken by ambulance to Tallaght Hospital, he died there from his injuries about an hour after being shot.
The scene of the shooting was sealed off last night and is undergoing an examination by members of the Garda Technical Bureau today.
A post mortem was scheduled to take place on the dead man’s remains later today at Tallaght Hospital.
A full scale murder investigation, based in Clondalkin Garda station, has already begun.
Connors, a member of the Traveller community, had a number of convictions including for larceny and burglary.
He was previously forced to offer for sale a more substantial family home in Tallaght when the Criminal Assets Bureau served on him a demand for €160,000 for unpaid tax on income he could not explain, which the bureau believed represented the proceeds of crime.
The house where he was shot last night had only been recently built and was still undergoing some construction work.
He had been a target of the Garda’s Operation Fiacla in recent years which was established by former garda commissioner Martin Callinan to clampdown on the spike in burglaries nationwide.
Connors was suspected of involvement in a gang that engaged in house break-ins and also more organised burglaries.
These involved gangs stealing high-powered cars and travelling around the country carrying out targeted burglaries at homes and businesses looking for cash or high value items for resale.
