Gunman in school gates shooting ‘lay in wait’ just days earlier

A GUNMAN who shot a father outside a primary school had been at the gates just days before with the same child’s buggy he used to stash his weapon.

Ross Monaghan, below, was shot in the back in an attempted murder outside St George’s Primary School in Glasgow as parents dropped their children off at school on Monday.

It has now emerged the would-be assassin had also been ‘lying in wait’ at the school last Friday – seven years to the day of a gangland murder of which Monaghan was accused.

Police fear the gunman, who fled while pushing his weapon in the buggy, may have intended to shoot Monaghan on Friday in a gangland revenge attack for the gangland murder of Kevin ‘Gerbil’ Carroll, who was shot dead in an Asda car park on January 13, 2010.

At the scene yesterday, Detective Chief Inspector John Kennedy said: ‘Not only did the man with the buggy attend here on Monday morning, he was here on Friday morning.

‘He went to the scene with the buggy, but with no child in the buggy. He was wandering about near the school. we don’t know if he intended to conduct the shooting on Friday or whether it was a dress rehearsal and he came to look at the lay of the land and assess when the children came to school.’

Monaghan was accused of Carroll’s murder but was cleared after a judge at the High Court in Glasgow ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict him. william Paterson was later convicted of the murder. Police are refusing to rule out a link between the two incidents and will consider their histories as part of the investigation.

Monaghan was shot twice at 9.05am after dropping his children off at the school in Penilee – described by detectives as a ‘reckless’ attack that could have injured pupils entering the building.

He made his own way to hospital for treatment, while the gunman – who is still at large – hid his weapon in the buggy and ran away from the scene.

Monaghan discharged himself from hospital last night after treatment for a shoulder injury. officers questioned the 35-year-old yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday, uniformed officers stood guard outside the school gates and issued an appeal to anyone of may have seen the suspect with the buggy. The weapon has still not been recovered but a team of forensic officers scouring the school grounds have recovered the casing of a bullet.