Innocent manshot dead in his home ‘was best dad’

THE family of an innocent man shot dead on his doorstep have hailed him a “great father and husband”.

Kieran Nugent paid tribute to his father, Edward Nugent, at an inquest into his death more than three years after the shooting.

“He was the best father that anyone could ask for. Here we are today and the scum that did this are walking the streets freely,” he said.

He and his brother, Thomas, held their mother Ann’s hand as the circumstances of the shooting were heard at Dublin Coroner’s Court.

“My father lived for his family. He was deprived of meeting his first grandson and was idolised by his only granddaughter,” Kieran said.

“He was a kind and loving man who lost his life prematurely in his own home where he should have been safe and secure.

“He was a hard-working man, who did his best to make sure we didn’t go without. He was a real community man.”

Eddie Nugent, from Harty Avenue, Walkinstown, Dublin 12, was sick with the flu in the days leading up to his death.

His wife said they usually visited the pub together on a Sunday.

Jumped

She said February 15, 2015, the date her husband was shot, was the first time she went without him.

“I never left him on a Sunday ever before,” she said.

About 9.30pm, her phone rang and she “jumped and ran”.

“I thought it was a heart attack. The house looked like a scene from the movies when I got there,” she said.

Thomas and his girlfriend, Laura Burke, were at the house when Mr Nugent was shot. Thomas heard the doorbell ring.

“I heard my dad say, ‘Get down’ twice and then crack, crack,crack, ”hesaid.

“Dad was conscious but he couldn’t breathe. The last thing he said was ‘I’m gone’.”

Thomas performed chest compressions on his father until the ambulance arrived.

Mr Nugent was rushed to St James’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead from gunshot wounds to the chest and lumbar spine. Detective Inspector Liam Kelly said a number of arrests were made but no prosecutions followed.

“It was not established from the investigation who fired the shots or who the shots were intended for,” he said.

The jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing by person or persons unknown.