A Dublin man was shot dead after a brawl in a Finglas pub, a jury in the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
Mr David Thomas (34), of Cloonlara Crescent, Finglas, Dublin, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Eamon O'Reily (23), of Sandyhill Gardens, Ballymun, in a Co Dublin pub on January 11th, 1998.
Mr Thomas also pleaded not guilty to seven other counts of possession of firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury, and of assaulting two gardai at a later date.
Opening the case for the prosecution, Mr John Peart SC told the jury that on January 11th, 1998, an argument developed in the Finglas public house between two families, and it got "out of hand".
Mr Peart said there had been "problems" between the families and that after receiving a telephone call the accused man had fetched his sawn-off shotgun from his home and gone to the public house.
He said the jury would later hear that the deceased was shot at close range with a shotgun and that he had his arm raised at the time of the shooting.
Reading from a statement allegedly given to gardai by the accused, Mr Peart told the court Mr Thomas had said he bought the gun a number of weeks earlier to protect his family, whom he believed to be under threat by the family of the deceased.
Mr Peart told the court that a number of days later, on January 15th, gardai attempted to gain entry to an apartment in Brunswick Street where they believed Mr Thomas and his family were staying.
"Gardai announced they were armed and sought to gain admittance to arrest the accused on suspicion of committing a crime," he said. Mr Thomas fired a weapon and seriously injured Garda Fearghal Patwell. A second garda was injured by a ricochet bullet, he said.
Ms Louise Scully told the court she was working in the bar in Finglas on January 11th when a group of eight or nine men in their 20s or 30s came in. Shortly after a row broke out. Several men at one point had the accused man's mother, Mrs Mary Thomas, by her cardigan and were dragging her around, she said. The father of the accused, Mr Richard Thomas, at one point was seen with his "head pouring blood", she said.
Prosecution witness Mr Martin Hennessy told the court that at one point during the row he "heard a bang . . .I seen a man fall on the floor at the front of the bar", he said. "The strangers then started throwing tables and chairs."
The trial before Mr Justice Paul Butler and a jury of five men and seven women continues today.