Gardaí investigating the murder of a separated father of six in Limerick believe that he was gunned down because he was mistaken for his brother.
Noel Crawford (40) was standing outside his parents' house at O'Malley Park, Southill, when he was shot in the stomach at about 2.50am yesterday. He was brought by ambulance to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital but he died later.
Mr Crawford, who worked in retail security and lived at O'Malley Park, had gone to his parents' house with a few cans of beer to celebrate his 40th birthday with his brothers and sisters.
He had been standing outside with his brother, Paul (32).
Paul Crawford went indoors and upstairs just moments before the gunman approached and shot Noel. He raced downstairs and cradled his brother as they waited for the emergency services.
Last month, on November 5th, their five-year-old nephew, Jordan Crawford, who lives at O'Malley Park, was wounded in the leg when a gunman fired from a semi-automatic weapon at Paul Crawford but hit the youngster.
It followed an earlier attack on November 3rd when 17 shots were fired at the Crawford parents' house. Four youths were arrested at Banogue, Co Limerick, by the Emergency Response Unit following a car chase.
Earlier last July, Paul Crawford escaped serious injury when shots were fired at him while he was sitting in a car with a woman and child. A 15-year-old boy received two injuries to the leg when he was caught in the fire.
Following the November attacks, Paul Crawford admitted that he was the intended target when his nephew Jordan was injured. Gardaí are understood to have advised him to take steps to improve his personal safety.
The Garda investigation into Noel Crawford's murder is headed by Supt Frank O'Brien of Roxboro Garda station, who confirmed that gardaí believe that he was killed because he was Paul Crawford's brother.
"We believe that the killing is related to an ongoing feud but we believe that Noel Crawford was killed only because of a family association. We are not aware of any involvement by Noel Crawford in any feud-related activity," said Supt O'Brien.
"Noel Crawford was a hard-working man with a number of children and we have no knowledge that he was involved in any sort of criminal activity that would put him at risk," he added.
Supt O'Brien said he believed that another shooting incident in O'Malley Park at about 4am when shots were fired through an upstairs window of an occupied house may have been in response to Mr Crawford's murder. Nobody was injured in that second shooting incident.
The area where Mr Crawford was shot was designated a crime scene by gardaí. It was cordoned off for forensic examination by Garda technical experts.
Gardaí were last night awaiting the results of a postmortem examination on Mr Crawford by Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis.