TWO MEMBERS of an organised crime gang are in Garda custody and a third is in hospital after a jeweller overpowered them as they were holding his wife at gunpoint during an attempted robbery attempt.
The gang behind the attempted raid are known gangland criminals. One of them was still at large last night.
Ken McDonagh (49), the owner of the family-owned Dawson Jewellers on Dawson St in Dublin tackled the men after he walked in on them during the attempted robbery just after 12.30pm yesterday.
One of the raiders was armed with a sawn-off shotgun and had grabbed Mr McDonagh’s wife, Fiona, by the neck.
He was threatening to shoot her as his three accomplices were gathering up jewellery in the store. Despite the presence of four masked men in the shop, Mr McDonagh immediately tackled the armed man who was holding his wife at gunpoint.
He managed to free her and wrestled the gun from the raider. Mr McDonagh then opened the firearm and emptied the cartridges from the chamber so it could not be discharged by the gang.
As he did this the man he had tackled tried to get the gun back. Mr McDonagh used the weapon to protect himself and his wife.
He managed to fend off his attacker using the shotgun as a club.
When the three other raiders realised Mr McDonagh had gained the upper hand in emptying the gun and subduing their accomplice, they panicked and ran from the shop.
A passerby wrestled one of them to the ground and held him until gardaí arrived.
Gardaí who converged on the the area from Nassau St and St Stephen’s Green captured a second man. Both of these suspects, in their 20s and 40s, were being held at Pearse Street Garda station last night.
The man who had been carrying the gun sustained injuries as he was being disarmed and subdued by Mr McDonagh.
He was taken from the scene in an ambulance and was being treated at St James’s Hospital last night.
The injured man and the man in his 40s who was arrested are uncle and nephew. They are well known to gardaí in the north inner city. The second arrested man is from the same area and is also known to gardaí.
Another man, whose identity is known to gardaí, managed to get away and was being sought last night.
He is a convicted armed robber in his 30s. He fired shots at gardaí during one robbery for which he was jailed in the 1990s.
He is currently on bail after being charged with a recent armed robbery during which he held a handgun to a customer’s head at a financial institution and threatened to shoot her if the staff did not give him cash.
Mr McDonagh, from Ranelagh, south Dublin, has been a very successful businessman for many years.
As well as being a well-known trader in the city centre he also owns a second store in Terenure, south Dublin.
His city centre business was robbed of €100,000 worth of jewellery in August last year.
The scene of the incident at Dawson St was sealed off yesterday and underwent a full examination by members of the Garda Technical Bureau.
Gardaí have appealed for anybody who was in the Dawson Street area just after 12.30pm yesterday to contact them at Pearse Street station on 01-6669000.