A SECURITY guard has described his horror at seeing a handgun suddenly appear between a wall and the head of a young man he was talking to before the man was shot seven times in a sustained attack.

Gerard “Batt” Byrne (26), of Ferryman’s Crossing, Dublin, was standing outside the Mace supermarket on Mayor Street in the Irish Financial Services Centre (IFSC) on December 13th, 2006, when he was gunned down in a targeted shooting, an inquest heard yesterday.

Mr Byrne, who was known to the Garda, had a short time earlier remarked on a silver car he had seen pass him a number of times. He would have had concerns for his safety, investigating officer Det Insp Kevin Dolan, of Store Street Garda station, told an inquest into his death at Dublin City Coroner’s Court yesterday. Security guard at Mace supermarket Peter Walsh told the court he was standing outside the supermarket, smoking and talking to Mr Byrne and his friend Eric McMahon when, “the next thing noticed was a small black automatic handgun come up between the wall and Gerard Byrne’s head, over his right shoulder. For the entire story please visit the link below:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0313/1224242799257.html