Gardaí are braced for further violence in the coming months after the latest murder in the Kinahan-Hutch feud saw a man with no connection to gangland gunned down.
Security sources said the murder of someone unconnected to the feud, in a botched bid to kill another man who was being targeted simply because of his family connections, showed the hatred driving the violence was as intense as ever.
Trevor O'Neill (40) from Drimnagh in Dublin was shot dead while on a family holiday in Majorca, Spain, on Wednesday night. Spanish and Irish authorities believe the gunmen set out to kill a member of the Hutch family who was holidaying in the area.
Intended victim
However,
Dublin City Council
worker Mr O’Neill lost his life when he was apparently mistaken for the intended victim.
The deceased father of three children – aged four, six and 11 – was shot in the back in an attack at about 9pm. It was witnessed by his wife and children and a number of other Irish people that they were with.
They were walking past an empty supermarket in Costa de la Calma, an area near the resort town of Santa Ponsa and about 25km from the island's capital, Palma. The group had just left a nearby restaurant where they enjoyed a meal and were on their way to a local square which is popular with holidaymakers in the evening.
Local police said three men were involved in the attack and that they wore disguises. Mr O’Neill was shot up to five times including twice in the back.
He was pronounced dead after being taken by ambulance to the Son Espases hospital in Palma where he died a short time later.
The killing was the tenth gun murder since the Kinahan-Hutch feud began last September with the shooting dead of Gary Hutch (35), of Champions Avenue, Dublin, in southern Spain by the Kinahan gang.
Since then there have been seven further feud murders and two killings indirectly linked to the dispute. Darren Kearns (34) and David Douglas (54) were shot dead last November and July respectively in Dublin because the Kinahan gang believed they were involved in a plot to shoot one of its members.
Warning scream
One woman who runs a shop close to the murder scene said: “It was pandemonium at first. People were screaming and running in all directions.”
She said Mr O’Neill’s wife shouted a warning scream enabling some of the group to run for cover down a side street.
“I know that lady was married to the victim because when we ran out to tend to the injured man, she kept on repeating the word ‘wife, wife’,” the witness said.
“We took her to one side and I got some water for her and held the man’s hand to try to encourage him to keep his eyes from closing while we waited for the ambulance to arrive.”
She said Mr O’Neill was losing a lot of blood and his conditioning was deteriorating rapidly as local people rushed to his aid and tried to stem the flow of blood before the ambulance arrived about 25 minutes after the shooting.
“But it was all too late. When they took him away to hospital, I knew he hadn’t made it,” the witness said.
Dedicated employee
The scene had been cleared by Thursday morning and the victim’s blood on the pavement was the only sign of what had taken place there less than 12 hours earlier.
Dublin City Council, where Mr O’Neill worked in the drains department, said in a statement it was shocked by his killing.
"Trevor was a hard-working and dedicated employee of Dublin City Council," chief executive officer Brendan Kenny said.
“On behalf of the management team, city councillors and staff of Dublin City Council, I would like to offer my deepest condolences to Trevor’s family and friends,” he said.
