By lunchtime yesterday, the steps in front of Tallaght Garda station were covered in floral tributes to Sgt Andrew Callanan. Through the morning, local people arrived at the gates of the station to lay bouquets and wreaths in memory of a garda most had never met.
Sarah Watson (10) and her sister Amy (15) came holding hands and bearing flowers. "We just think it's very sad that someone would be sick enough to do that. It's a horrible, horrible thing to do and we feel very sorry. We came to show that not everyone's like that."
Ms Marie Morrissey, a local who works in a chemist shop in the nearby Square Shopping Centre, arrived with a bouquet of flowers bought on behalf of her colleagues.
"The girl in the flower shop was inundated with requests for bouquets and wreaths. Nobody can believe what happened. We said we'd just come over and pay our respects."
Ms Mairead Mooney of the Tallaght Employment Exchange, which is located next door to the Garda station, said that staff there were "very shocked" by Sgt Callanan's death.
Along with sorrow, there was anger. One man who brought flowers to the station expressed a desire to "kick several different shades of s**t" out of the person responsible for the incident. "Unfortunately you have to operate within the law. That's what that man was doing and he was killed."
Gardai from Blanchardstown came with a wreath. The dedication read "In loving memory to a fallen colleague".
Chief Supt Noel Smith came out of the station to praise a young garda "you couldn't help but like".
"I can still see his smile. Anytime I ever met him - sometimes it was representing his fellow members in relation to AGSI business - whatever it was. at the end of it all he had that fantastic smile."
He said the mood in the station was "very sombre". Gardai were in "a very shocked state". Those on night shifts were reluctant to go home this morning.
"For the young guards who were here, who were finishing work around that time, it's probably the most traumatic thing that's happened to them. When it's one of your colleagues who has died, everybody wants to be there and nobody wants to go home."
He said gardai had always enjoyed "fantastic support" from the local community. "Tallaght has various names, but I can tell you it's a very vibrant community. There is a marvellous esprit de corps among the community here."
He ruled out restricting the general public's access to the station. "We want the people to come into us. The last thing we would want to do is to turn this station into a Fort Apache".