A man was fighting for his life late on Wednesday night after a gunman opened fire on him as he sat in a car in traffic in west Dublin.
Gardaí believe the victim was the gunman’s intended target and that he had been under surveillance before being singled out in what appeared to be a well- planned ambush.
It was the fourth gangland-style shooting in the Republic in the past month, with two men dead and two others seriously injured.
The latest attack occurred just after 5pm on Blakestown Road, Dublin 15. A gunman ran up to the vehicle the victim was in and discharged a number of shots.
As the victim lay wounded, the gunman ran from the scene and gardaí believe he was taken from the area in a stolen BMW later found burnt-out.
Emergency personnel rushed to the scene and paramedics succeeded in stabilising the victim before he was taken by ambulance to Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown.
Garda sources said while the victim’s condition was critical it was also stable and there were hopes that he may survive.
The motive for the attack was not immediately clear. However, a number of drug gangs in the area have been involved in a feud in recent years, which has already claimed three lives.
Getaway car
Gardaí are trying to establish if the victim of the shooting was somehow at odds with any of those armed drug gang members.
Detectives investigating Wednesday’s attempted murder say it was very well-planned, with the getaway car quickly leaving the scene and having been dumped and set alight before paramedics reached the injured man.
He is in his 20s and from the Clondalkin area. In the past, he has been stopped by gardaí in the company of men involved in the drug trade.
In 2016, he was also one among a group of men stopped with a large sum of money as they were planning to leave the country for a period in southern Spain. The cash was confiscated and, when the men were unable to explain where it had come from, it was retained by the State.
Gardaí last night sealed off the location where the man was shot and it was undergoing a technical examination by Garda crime scene examiners. A second crime scene was also sealed off at Saddlers Grove, Mulhuddart, where a silver BMW 3 Series was found burnt-out.
Gardaí believe the vehicle was used by the would-be killer and his accomplice. It appears the gunman ran into and from the shooting scene very quickly and was picked up in the BMW waiting a short distance away.
Gardaí in Blanchardstown are appealing for anyone who was in the area around either crime scene between 4.30pm and 5.30pm to come forward. They are also appealing to any motorists using dashcams while driving in the relevant locations to contact them.
