Independent pathologist: George shot twice in back
GEORGE NKENCHO, who died outside his home in Clonee, Dublin, in December, was shot twice in the back by armed gardaí, a preliminary pathology report has found.
A pathologist hired by the Nkencho family’s solicitor, Mr Phelim O’Neill, found that one of the two back wounds suffered by Mr Nkencho was a gunshot wound entering his lower back and exiting his upper right chest.
Mr Nkencho’s State-conducted postmortem found that he was shot six times in total with an interim cause of death believed to be two fatal gunshots to vital organs.
Separately, Professor Jack Crane, the former State Pathologist for Northern Ireland, who was hired by Mr O’Neill for the family’s own investigation, conducted a preliminary postmortem into Mr Nkencho’s death on January 12 at Dublin City Mortuary.
According to sources close to the family, Prof. Crane noted that, among the ‘five or six’ wounds, ‘a small, neat entrance wound was on the left side of the back/left flank area. The track of this bullet was upwards and to the right, passing through the lower lobe of the left lung and the heart to emerge at an exit wound on the centre of the front of the upper chest’.
The professor records a second ‘probable entrance wound on the left side of the upper back, below the left shoulderblade. It would appear to have been a superficial wound, exiting from a wound in the left axila [armpit]’. Three wounds were to the chest with another to the left forearm, he finds.
The professor records wounds to the left lung, heart and liver and says that ‘the wounds’ direction would tend to indicate that he [Mr Nkencho] was moving during the course of the shooting’.
George Nkencho, 27, who had no previous criminal convictions, was shot dead outside his Clonee home at around 12.35pm on December 30, 2020.
Mr Nkencho, who suffered mental health problems, had been involved in an incident at a Spar shop in nearby Hartstown where he attacked a shop assistant while brandishing a knife, though he did not stab the assistant. A second, verbal incident also occurred at the nearby post office.
He was reported to local gardaí who followed him as he carried the knife on his walk back to his house at Manorfields Drive, Clonee, Dublin 15. Mr Nkencho was instructed to drop the knife but did not.
The Garda Armed Support Unit then attempted to restrain Mr Nkencho outside his home, using pepper spray and deploying Taser while his family were inside.
He was fatally wounded by gardaí, who fired at Mr Nkencho. Following the first shot, he appeared to lunge at gardaí with the knife. Gardaí did not know Mr Nkencho’s home address and feared he might take hostages of those inside, who were actually his three siblings.
Mr O’Neill has expressed his ‘extreme concerns’ at the pace of the investigation but he welcomed the fact that it had been given the status of a criminal investigation by GSOC.
He has also written to the Garda Ombudsman’s office expressing his concern about the taking of witnesses statements.
‘Three weeks have passed since George Nkencho was shot dead by An Garda Síochána, and you [GSOC] have still failed, refused and/or neglected to take statements from the civilian eye-witnesses whom we represent [the Nkencho family]. Again, we cannot state strongly enough how concerned we are by that delay,’ he wrote.
A spokesman for An Garda Síochána said that it cannot comment on matters subject to a GSOC investigation.
‘Three wounds were to the chest’