Victim was killed by ‘volatile’ dealer in row over niece attack
A MAN shot dead on his doorstep this week was murdered by a Limerick drug dealer who is accused of attacking the 55-year-old victim’s niece, gardaí believe.
Officers investigating the murder of Thomas McCarthy in Ballyfermot in Dublin on Monday now suspect the settled Traveller was shot dead over a bitter familylinked dispute.
A manhunt is now under way for the ‘volatile’ Limerick drug dealer suspected of blasting Mr McCarthy eight times when he opened the front door of his mother’s home in Ballyfermot on Monday.
Gardaí have ‘not discounted’ a theory that Mr McCarthy was shot dead in a case of mistaken identity, as a close associate of the murder victim is aligned to a major Ballyfermot drug trafficker.
However, the ‘pertinent theory’ is that the Limerick criminal, who beat up a young female relative of Mr McCarthy, killed him because he feared the victim planned to attack him.
Mr McCarthy lived in Essex, in England, with his wife and family for some years. He was not involved in organised crime. He had been home in Ireland for one week when he was shot dead.
A well–placed source said that ‘word got around’ that the victim returned to Ireland ‘to sort out’ the Limerick criminal who attacked his young relative.
A source said: ‘It is suspected this criminal then decided to get in there first and went and shot him dead in cold blood. This Limerick criminal is a highly organised convicted drug dealer, well known to gardaí for firearms offences as well. He is a volatile man. There’s a manhunt underway for him.’
Mr McCarthy was shot at least eight times and chased through the house before his masked killer fled the scene.
The gunman opened fire when Mr McCarthy opened the front door and his killer continued to shoot as he tried to flee back into his elderly mother’s home in Croftwood Park, Ballyfermot, at around 11am on Monday.
Other family members were in the house at the time, including the victim’s 49-year-old brother. It is understood that the victim opened the door and the gunman immediately opened fire, shooting him at least four times in the upper body. As he ran inside, the gunman pursued him and Mr McCarthy was shot again several times. Sources say the victim was ‘riddled with bullets’.
‘It was a well-planned, clinical gangland execution,’ a senior source told the Mail.
The gunman is believed to have fled in a Ford Fiesta, which was found burned out in nearby Le Fanu Drive. He then transferred to a silver Skoda Octavia which was later set alight in the Monksfield area of Clondalkin.
Superintendent Tony Twomey led a briefing on Monday afternoon at Ballyfermot Garda station. He said gardaí are interested in the movement of the burnt-out Ford Fiesta and the silver Skoda Octavia which travelled from Killeen Road to Monksfield Walk/ Lawns area of Clondalkin.
‘A well-planned execution’