The dissident republican who shot dead Garda Tony Golden had been released on bail earlier this year with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The gunman, identified as 24-year-old Adrian Crevan Mackin, had been questioned about terrorist offences on a number of occasions and was charged with IRA membership at the Special Criminal Court last January. He was released on condition he comply with bail conditions which included signing on daily at Dundalk Garda station and residing at the house in Omeath.
On Sunday evening Mackin shot dead Garda Golden and seriously injured his former partner after they arrived at his home following a domestic abuse complaint earlier that day. He is understood to have then turned the gun on himself.
Garda authorities are facing questions about Garda Golden’s personal security and whether he should have entered the house without back-up given the gunman’s previous involvement in terrorism.
Former minister for justice Dermot Ahern said answers were needed over how Garda Golden’s killer had access to a handgun, while local politicians raised concerns over cuts to resources for gardaí locally.
Investigation
Security sources suggested yesterday there was no firm indication the dissident republican had a firearm at his house, while Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan said all issues leading up to the shooting will be fully investigated. “There are dangerous people right throughout the community. Without going into the circumstances of this case, there is an investigation under way, all the circumstances leading up to these these tragic events will be fully established,” she said.
Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald declined to criticise the decision to grant bail to Mackin. She said there was a separation of powers between the judiciary and the Government, but it was a “matter of record” that new legislation strengthening the bail laws was before the Dáil.
Mackin, whose case was due back in court later this month, was released on bail four days after his arrest last January. He was still on bail when he shot Garda Golden.
Legal sources have said it is not unusual for the DPP to consent to defendants being granted bail at the Special Criminal Court, and it may even be easier to obtain it there compared to other courts, because bail conditions once set tend to be honoured. Mackin’s arrest followed a joint Garda-Police Service of Northern Ireland operation to target dissident republicans in the Border area.
Many members of the force in Co Louth, meanwhile, were coming to terms with the second loss of a colleague in under three years. The shooting occurred just miles from where Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe was fatally shot in Co Louth in January 2013.
Supt Gerry Curley described Garda Golden, a father of three, as an excellent member of the force. “He was meticulous in the way he went about his work. He was a quiet unassuming person who did his job in a diligent manner. He was a credit to An Garda Síochána. He will be a major loss to us all,” he said.
Dermot O’Brien, president of the Garda Representative Association, said: “This dreadful, dreadful news is the deepest fear of every police family.”
Former assistant commissioner Martin Donnellan has insisted Sunday’s shooting was not an argument for arming gardaí.
The gunman’s partner was last night in a critical condition in Beaumont Hospital in Dublin after receiving a number of “serious gunshot wounds”, according to gardaí.
