A HITMAN-for-hire gunned down on Thursday night was shot on the orders of a Finglas-based mobster who feared he would turn informer.
Armed robber Karl Wynne (45), was shot four times while sitting on a wall outside a busy shopping centre in Tallaght.
Wynne remains in Tallaght Hospital, but a source said he had no hope of recovery and his life-support machine had been switched off yesterday afternoon.
Gardai believe Wynne’s shooting is directly linked to the shooting of businessman Sean Enright outside a Cabra gym in 15 May.
Wynne had accepted a €20,000 contract to kill Enright from a Finglas-based gang heavily involved in drug dealing and armed robberies.
However, Wynne botched the murder attempt, with CCTV footage showing him shaking in fear as he approached Enright.
Gardai believe Wynne’s associates decided to take him out because they feared he was at risk of being turned by gardai into an informer.
They are now investigating if Wynne’s murder was arranged by a well-known Finglas criminal who has served a lengthy prison sentence for armed robbery.
The up-and-coming mobster – who has links to the jailed Bradley brothers – is also a suspect in the murder of drug dealer Paul Cullen earlier this year.
The drug dealer is said to have been a close friend of Enright’s and had been due to meet him the day he was shot.
Investigating officers believe Wynne was lured to his death on Thursday night after receiving a phone call from someone he knew.
Career criminal Wynne was clearly identified by gardai within hours of Enright’s attempted murder.
He was subsequently arrested and kept in garda custody for nearly a week before being released without charge, with a file being sent to the DPP. Senior gardai wanted him to be charged before he was released, but the DPP insisted a full file be sent before he was brought before the courts.
However, Wynne’s release only heightened suspicions against him.
He had previously been described as a ‘dead man walking’ by the Sunday World.
We revealed how, hours after Enright was shot, a number of feared criminals had called to Wynne’s home looking for him.
It is believed they planned to abduct him and that his life was saved by gardai when they arrested him.
Dad-of-six Wynne had spent half of his life behind bars and had served more than 20 years in prison here and in the UK. He was gunned down outside a vegetable store at the shopping centre on St Dominic’s Road, shortly before 10pm on Thursday.
The pillion passenger on the motorcycle fired five shots from a handgun, hitting Wynne once in the head and three times in the body.
Wynne had been living in the Tallaght area for the past couple of months, but is originally from Claremont Drive, Ballygall Road East in Finglas, north Dublin.
Gardai are also investigating if Wynne was involved in the murder of 38-year-old gangster Alan Desmond, who was found by children close to a field in Tallaght on May 18.
