‘Sympathy’ for detective who fired shots

THERE was widespread sympathy and backing for the detective garda who shot murder suspect Mark Hennessy dead on Sunday night.

Despite a furore online as members of the public questioned whether Hennessy should not have been shot in the leg or arm to disable him, members of the force said armed gardaí are trained to aim for the centre of the body.

Hennessy’s Nissan Qashaai is understood to have been spotted by local members of the Civil Defence who alerted gardaí and followed him to Cherrywood Industrial Estate where they barricaded the exit with their van. The Cherrywood site is close to the Dublin-Wicklow border and just a 15minute drive from where Jastine was abducted.

At this point it was believed that two people were in the Qashqai.

After gardaí arrived minutes later, Hennessy is understood to have run at a garda with a box-cutter, or Stanley knife, prompting an armed detective garda to shoot him. He was shot five times to the body and fell backwards.

The detective has given a preliminary interview to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc). ‘The incident was referred by the Garda Síochána to Gsoc under section 102 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005, which provides for independent investigation of any matter that appears to indicate that the conduct of a member of the Garda Síochána may have resulted in the death of, or serious harm to, a person,’ it said in a statement.

Gsoc will investigate whether the use of lethal force was justified or not.

The detective who shot Hennessy will need to be able to show that it was a last resort, and that he had no other option available but to use his gun to stop him attacking his colleague with the knife.

Gardaí are only trained to aim at the centre of a target’s body as they are less likely to miss them if they do so, and are also more likely to stop the attacker with just one shot rather than multiple shots.

This aim may not be achieved if they only shoot them in the foot or arm.

Armed gardaí such as detectives need to achieve a 65% accuracy rate during their training while members of the elite Emergency Response Unit (ERU) need to achieve 80%.

It is understood that the detective who shot Hennessy did not have access to a Taser gun to immobilise the suspect as only the ERU and other elite units are trained in their use.