This article is from page 3 of the 2007-10-30 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
NEIGHBOURS of Brian Fitzgerald have told the trial how they woke up of the night of his death to hear gun- shots.
One woman, Monica McElvanney, said she was awakened at 3.37 am to hear someone shouting out “Oh God ona
Almost immediately she heard two or three shots. There was a gap of around 30 seconds before another two or three shots sounded. She said
she stayed in bed terrified.
Another witness, Mary Mannix, said she woke up just after 3.30am hearing four or six shots. She heard a man crying or shouting out “help me, I’m being shot at.”
Patrick Healy said he had been leav- ing a friend’s house on the street. At around lam, he saw a “filthy dirty” red Ford Mondeo driving slowly down the road.
He could see the driver who he described as a “stocky, bald man”. He became suspicious when the car
made an awkward three-point turn, but when he went towards the car to get a better look it sped away.
Another neighbour, Paul O’ Byrne, said he was awakened by the sound of shots, at around 3.45am. He got up to phone the gardai and saw a man walking past the window wearing a white motorcycle helmet with the visor down over his face. He heard someone shouting “hurry up” but wasn’t sure if it was the man he had ore tb
Elaine Murphy was also awak-
ened by the sound of gun shots. She looked out of the window and saw a man wearing a light coloured helmet and dark clothes walking away from the Fitzgerald’s house.
A few minutes later she saw some- one sprinting out of the estate “out of the corner of my eye” and a second man walking out of the estate. She noted again he was wearing a light coloured helmet and dark clothes. She said she thought at first this man was injured but now wasn’t sure. He was holding a gun.
The trial heard that gardai recov- ered a 9mm semi-automatic pistol from the bed of the Mulcair River in Anacotty.
Detective Garda John Higgins said the weapon was a Czech made weapon which had been reactivated for normal use.
He told the court he had examined the victim’s jeep, finding a canister of CS gas, a steel baton and a throw- ing knife in a leather sheath. He said he had found no sign of a handgun in the jeep.