The garda who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to John Carthy after he had been fatally wounded at Abbeylara told the Barr tribunal he was concerned for Mr Carthy's life after he saw him falling to the ground.
Det Sgt Oliver Flaherty of the Emergency Response Unit had his pistol trained on Mr Carthy when he was shot four times by two ERU members on April 20th, 2000. He had just emerged from his Co Longford home at about 5.45 p.m. after a 26-hour siege.
Det Sgt Flaherty told the tribunal he saw Mr Carthy falling backwards after he had been shot. He saw blood coming from his left thigh and said his face was ashen and his eyes had begun to dilate.
As he had a qualification in pre-hospital trauma life support, Det Sgt Flaherty checked for Mr Carthy's pulse but found none. He then gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but got no response.
He administered cardiac pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with Det Garda Michael Sullivan but with no success. The ambulance and a local doctor then arrived, and Mr Carthy was pronounced dead.
"I closed John Carthy's eyes, crossed his arms over his chest and placed a red blanket from the ambulance over his face and body," Det Sgt Flaherty said in a statement to the tribunal.
Afterwards, he went to Granard Garda station with colleagues for a brief meeting with an Assistant Commissioner, Mr Tony Hickey.
Mr Hickey told the assembled gardaí that an investigation had been opened into the events at Abbeylara and said the Garda firearms would have to be surrendered for ballistic testing.
Asked by counsel for the tribunal if the events at Abbeylara had been discussed, Det Sgt Flaherty said: "No, there was absolutely no discussion about the events."
"Did you have any discussion about what had happened on the way back to Dublin?" asked Mr Michael McGrath SC, for the tribunal. "Not that I recall, no," he said. "I can't remember who I actually travelled back with."
The tribunal continues today.
