A CONVICTED Limerick criminal was in custody last night after a car was stolen with a two-year-old boy inside and driven at gardaí who had pursued it.
An investigation is under way after a member of the armed Regional Support Unit fired two shots at the stolen vehicle after the driver had abandoned the child at the side of a country road.
It is understood the driver was wearing a bulletproof vest.
The incident began at about 9.25am yesterday when a black Opel Zafira was stolen from the car park outside Woodview Shopping Centre on the north side of Limerick city.
The car was parked near the Centra shop with three children aged two, 10 and 11, in the back seat and the keys in the ignition.
The man shouted at the children to get out of the car and he pushed a screwdriver into the 11-year-old girl’s back as she tried to get her two-year-old brother out.
The 10-year-old boy jumped out of the car via the front passenger door. The girl failed to get her younger brother out the car and the thief drove off with him still inside.
The children’s mother, travelling in their uncle’s car, pursued him and found the child abandoned close to the Country Club bar on the Old Cratloe Road.
The driver of the stolen vehicle continued in the direction of Meelick village where a uniformed garda had to jump out of the way after he tried to stop him.
The car turned right near Brennan’s Cross in Meelick and headed in the direction of the Knockalisheen Road, where members of the armed Regional Support Unit joined the pursuit.
The man tried to drive through locked gates in a wooded area known as the Delmege Demesne, located behind the Moyross housing estate, where armed gardaí tried to stop him after he became entangled in the gates.
As a member of the Regional Support Unit walked over to the car the driver tried to drive over him and two shots were fired at the vehicle.
The stolen car was then driven a short distance more before it crashed into a tree. The driver tried to flee on foot but was arrested by gardaí. According to a Garda spokesman the shots were fired “in order to prevent serious loss of life”.
The Office of the Garda Ombudsman was notified about the incident and Det Garda Dan Keane from Tralee was appointed to investigate the matter.
The man (32) was being held for questioning last night under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act.
Known to gardaí, the suspect has spent time in prison for a feud-related arson attack and was injured in a stabbing incident near the city centre during the Christmas period.