Staff and customers feared for their lives during a foiled armed robbery at a north Dublin post office in which two raiders were shot dead, an inquest heard today.
Dublin City Coroner's Court heard that gardaí lay in wait for three men who tried to carry out the raid in The Village Store, Lusk, Co Dublin.
Colm Griffin (33), of Canon Lillis Avenue, and Eric Hopkins (24), of Lower Rutland Street, both Dublin, were shot dead by the Emergency Response Unit as they tried to steal €48,500 on the morning of May 26th, 2005.
A third man, Gavin Farrelly (35), of Lower Sheriff Street, Dublin, surrendered at the scene. He was sentenced last May to ten years in jail, with two years suspended, after pleading guilty to attempted robbery and allowing himself to be carried in a stolen car.
Detective Superintendent Dominic Hayes, a member of the National Bureau Criminal Investigation unit, told the inquest he had received confidential information that an armed robbery was planned at the post office in the store as cash was being delivered.
As he waited on the outskirts of the town in an unmarked vehicle, gardaí identified three vehicles in the area. He said Griffin, who was known to him, travelled in one while a second was registered to his associates.
After the cash was delivered under Garda escort to the store, a car drove into its rear yard.
Shop manager Victoria Kumincate told the inquest she was counting the previous night's takings in an office at the rear of a store when she heard banging and men shouting. On a CCTV monitor she saw a man with his head covered pressed the panic button. It was the second robbery during her shift in less than five months.
"I was terrified and upset," she said. "I was worried for everybody's life and the staff working in the shop."
Ms Kumincate said when she left the office she came face to face with a garda and saw three men lying on the ground - one on his front in handcuffs and two injured with bare chests with gardaí giving them first aid.
The following day, investigations by a computer forensic officer revealed the store had eight working cameras, but the manager had failed to press the record button on the CCTV system on the morning of May 26th.
However, Det Gda Gerard Keane said a second digital system and the post office's own security tapes had picked up some of the incident.
Security was tight at the city courthouse, with witnesses, family members and the media forced to walk through an x-ray machine and have their bags checked.
Heavy curtains were also hung around the witness box, ready to be pulled to protect the identity of five members of An Garda Sochána when they give evidence.
Two of the gardaí will be known as Garda A and Garda B. More than 40 witnesses are due to give evidence at the inquest over the next three to four days.