A MAN shot dead in a double murder in Limerick may have contacted the gunman hours before the fatal shootings looking for drugs.
Des Kelly (23) and Breda Waters (28) were found with gunshot wounds at a house in O’Malley Park last Sunday morning. Both were shot once in the head with a shotgun. Gardaí believe Mr Kelly was targeted because of an outstanding heroin debt and that Ms Waters was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Gardaí believe the suspected gunman called to Mr Kelly’s house at 9am on Sunday with another man, also a convicted criminal, aged in his 20s. Mr Kelly was shot in the kitchen after he answered the front door and tried to run out the back of the house.
Mother of three Ms Waters was shot in the head as she slept in a bedroom upstairs. Mr Kelly’s sister Teresa and his two-month- old baby girl were also in the house but escaped unharmed.
Gardaí believe the gunmen left the house on foot and CCTV footage from cameras in the O’Malley Park estate will prove crucial to the inquiry.
Four men and three women were arrested at a house in Castletroy on Monday. A 36-year-old woman was also arrested yesterday on suspicion of withholding information under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. The seven others are being held under section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act. They all had their periods of detention extended yesterday and can be held for up to seven days.
Garda Supt John Scanlan of Roxboro Garda station, who is leading the inquiry, applied at Limerick District Court yesterday for an extra 48 hours to preserve a second house in Southill as a crime scene. The house, also in O’Malley Park, was sealed off at 1pm on Monday as part of the investigation.
In his evidence, Supt Scanlan said he was applying to continue the designation of the house as a crime scene under section 5 of the Criminal Justice Act. He told the court the address formed part of the double murder investigation.
The owner of the house, Anthony Kelly, was in court for the hearing and objected to the application through his solicitor John Devane.
Mr Devane said his client and his partner and two young children had “effectively been put out of their house” and they were anxious to return home. Supt Scanlan confirmed to the court that neither Mr Kelly nor his partner and two children were among the eight people in custody.
Judge Tom O’Donnell said he was satisfied on the “balance of the evidence” to grant the application.
The removal of Ms Waters will take place this evening from Cross’s funeral home in Limerick at 6pm. Funeral Mass will take place tomorrow at 11am at St Mary’s Church. Funeral arrangements for Mr Kelly are due to be confirmed today.