IT’S a scene that has been all too familiar on Dublin’s streets this year - Gardai sealing off the location of a shooting with shocked and frightened locals looking on.
The capital’s latest botched hit - the attempt on gangland figure Brian O’Reilly’s life - took place in the normally quiet north Dublin town of Balbriggan yesterday.
A former right-hand man of slain gang boss Eamon The Don’ Dunne, O’Reilly was gunned down outside the Platinum Gym in a retail park, metres away from a popular children’s adventure centre.
Diarmuid Crowley said he was due to drop off his two young children at the centre around the time at which the shooting occurred.
However, he was delayed after his daughter fell asleep and arrived an hour later than planned.
Mr Crowley said: “There should be some sort of unwritten code with these guys, with places like this, you know what I mean? They wouldn’t like if their own kids got caught in the crossfire.”
Mr Crowley, from Youghal in Co Cork, said he and his wife were “disgusted” when they heard what had happened.
It’s not the first shooting this year to take place near where children may be gathered. Declan Fat Deccie’ Smith - an associate of murdered Real IRA boss Alan Ryan - was shot in the face outside a creche in Donaghmede in March and later died from his injuries.
One witness, who was at the gym at the time of yesterday’s incident, said he recalled seeing a man stumbling across the retail park.
“I was here when it was happening. I could see somebody outside, and I thought he collapsed,” said the witness, who did not wish to be named.
Two of the gym’s regular customers, students Charles Adebayo and Samuel Joseph, described the incident as “absolutely shocking”.
Mr Adebayo said: “We come here every day, we just can’t believe something like that would happen here.”
The shooting took place near the scene of a tragic incident last January, when a mother died and her baby was critically injured after being struck by a people carrier at the entrance to the retail park.
