A man has been arrested over the murder of Gareth Hutch in Dublin.
A nephew of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch, Gareth Hutch was shot dead in the north inner city in the latest murder linked to the Kinahan-Hutch feud.
The 29-year-old suspect is being held under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act 2007 as amended at Mountjoy Garda station.
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He is believed to have presented himself for questioning by gardaí.
Gareth Hutch (35) was shot dead just after 9am just off North Cumberland Street in the north inner city.
Garda sources said while the investigation was at an early stage, there were witness reports of two attackers and that a large number of shots were fired.
The dead man was a cousin of Gary Hutch and also the nephew of murdered taxi driver Eddie Hutch.
Gardaí have said two handguns were found at the scene of the shooting, which took place in the car park of Avondale House, North Cumberland Street, where Mr Hutch lived.
It happened despite intense Garda surveillance in the area and a checkpoint at Mountjoy Square nearby.
After the killing, the two men got into a black BMW car, registration 02D 39051, which was parked nearby. Iit appears not to have started so the killers fled on foot. They turned left onto North Cumberland Street and then on to Sean MacDermott Street.
The car is now part of the Garda investigation. Gardaí have appealed for anybody with information on its movements in recent days to come forward.
One of the men wore a red top or a red hoodie; the other wore a grey-coloured top.
Seven deaths
The latest murder brings to seven the number of people who have been shot dead in a feud between the drugs gang led from Spain by Irishman Christy Kinahan and associates in Dublin of Gary Hutch (34), who was from the inner city.
Gary Hutch was shot dead in Spain last September by the Kinahan gang after it accused him of being a police informer. This killing is considered the start of the Kinahan-Hutch feud.
Since then six people have been shot in Ireland. The Kinahan side of the feud is suspected of six of the seven murders in the feud to date.
Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has said the latest murder in Dublin is an "outrageous attack on law and order" and is "unacceptable".
Ms Fitzgerald said there has been “no scaling back” in Garda operations to tackle criminal gangs, adding that resources are being made available.
“This unprecedented cycle of evil, cold-blooded violence must stop and the Government and gardaí stand with the community in the north inner city...
"Major investigations are under way in relation to recent shooting incidents and every necessary resource is available to An Garda Síochána. "
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, in Brussels for a eurogroup meeting of finance ministers on Greek debt relief, said he had travelled to the city before the shooting was perpetrated and said: "I understand the Minister for Justice issued a statement. I have nothing to add to her statement."
President Michael D Higgins said "any murder is a great loss to any society and community. Obviously it is a matter for appropriate authorities and those investigating those issues to do so and I am sure they have the support of the public."
Unprecedented
The murder of seven people in nine months as part of the same Irish gangland feud is unprecedented.
According to Cllr Nial Ring, the dead man had sought help in getting a new home just a day earlier because he feared he was a target in a gangland feud.
While the dead man was well known to gardaí, he was not regarded as a major player in the underworld.
However, he was a member of an armed gang that tried to rob a cash in transit can bringing money to an ATM machine in a Co Dublin shop in 2009.
The dead man's brother Derek Hutch is serving lengthy sentences for a variety of crimes including manslaughter related to a fatal stabbing, armed robbery and a gangland murder attempt.
The raid on the van on Foxborough Road, Lucan, was foiled when gardaí gathered intelligence suggesting it was about to take place.
As the robbery began, gardaí moved in and one of the raiders, Gareth Molloy (27), was shot dead.
Other deaths linked to the feud include the shooting at the Regency Hotel of David Byrne in February.
Byrne (33), from Crumlin in Dublin, was shot dead by a gang armed with assault rifles during a boxing weigh-in at the hotel. He was a member of the Kinahan gang.
Three days later Gary Hutch’s uncle Eddie Hutch (58) was shot dead at his home in Dublin’s north inner city.
He was not involved in organised crime but was targeted because he was a member of the Hutch family.
On March 23rd, Hutch family associate Noel Duggan (55) was shot dead in the driveway at his home in Ratoath, Co Meath.
