Gardai are searching for a violent, cocaine-fuelled criminal as they step up their hunt for the lone hitman who shot Thomas McCarthy to death on the doorstep of his family home.
It has also emerged that the killer used three separate getaway cars in the brazen daylight murder.
The third vehicle was found burned out on Monday evening and raised fears that the gunman had an accomplice who helped him escape.
The car was reported acting suspiciously around five kilometres from the scene of the shooting shortly before the killer knocked on Mr McCarthy’s mother’s door in the Cherry Orchard area of Ballyfermot in west Dublin.
The Irish Mirror understands detectives are keen to identify the whereabouts of a thug who lives in the same neighbourhood where the shocking killing took place.
Gardai at the scene of a fatal shooting incident that occurred at a house in the Croftwood Park area of Ballyfermot Dublin today. (Image: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin)
Gardai at the scene of a fatal shooting incident that occurred at a house in the Croftwood Park area of Ballyfermot Dublin today. Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin (Image: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin)
One line of enquiry centres on a personal dispute the man in his 20s was having with someone known to the 55-year-old father who was gunned down in his mother’s hallway on Monday morning.
Local sources reported that Mr McCarthy had become embroiled in the row after an assault on someone he knew.
The volatile criminal on the other side of the dispute is well known to Gardai.
It’s understood he has now gone to ground.
Gardai have been trying to trace him amid fears that he is paranoid and a danger to others following the horror shooting.
There are also concerns of reprisals in the area where Mr McCarthy was well liked.
The father and grandad was not involved in crime and had lived in the UK where he raised his family.
However, he was known to people from his old neighbourhood who are associates of a violent drug gang in the west Dublin suburb.
Gardai at the scene of a fatal shooting incident that occurred at a house in the Croftwood Park area of Ballyfermot Dublin (Image: Colin Keegan/Collins)
Burnt out car on Le Fanu Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10. (Image: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin)
There are fears that they may take the law into their own hands and seek revenge.
Yesterday it emerged that a third vehicle was used in the well-planned hit which bore the stamp of organised crime.
The shooter drove himself to the attack and sped away from the scene in a blue Ford Fiesta which he abandoned just minutes away at Le Fanu Drive in Ballyfermot.
He torched the car and jumped into a second getaway vehicle – a silver Skoda Octavia – which had been left there as part of the planned hit.
The gunman drove the Skoda another short distance to the nearby Monksfield area in Clondalkin, where it was also abandoned and set on fire, before calmly walking away.
It has now emerged that a third vehicle was also seen acting suspiciously around the corner from where the killer abandoned the Skoda, and was later found burned out.
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Car burned out close to the scene of a fatal shooting in Ballyfermot, Dublin
Gardai are appealing for information on a black Toyota Avensis with registration number 10-D-123251.
A spokesman said: “It was sighted in the vicinity of Woodford Walk between 10.57am and 11.06am yesterday morning. Gardaí are interested in the movements of this vehicle before and after this sighting.
“The car was later discovered burnt out on Peamount Road, Newcastle, Co. Dublin at 9.30pm last night.
Gardaí are appealing to anyone who may have observed this vehicle between the hours of 10am and 9.30pm yesterday, Monday 27th July 2020 or who may have any information in relation to this vehicle, to contact them at Ballyfermot Garda Station on 01 666 7200, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.”
