Man shoots dead neighbour in Co. Mayo

Kurtyoo

A man in his 80s has been arrested after another man, aged in his 60s, was shot dead in Co Mayo last night.
The shooting happened at Aghamore, Ballyhaunis, just before midnight.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
The arrested man is being held at Castlebar Garda Station.
It is understood that shots were discharged after the elderly man heard activity outside his property.
Initial inquiries suggest he went outside and discharged a number of warning shots, which had fatal consequences.

LuasSimon

It shows the fear people are living under in Rural Ireland with all the robberies and burglaries, any noise at night time is met with fear ..

No garda Stations and roaming traveller gangs have Rural Ireland under siege not that Fine Gael Dublin care.

Xenji

It looks to be a tragic accident, unfortunately a lot of elderly farmers have to live with the fear of something happening to them or their property and can be quite isolated and vulnerable, I have heard plenty of disturbing stories over the years in Mayo from cousins who are farmers and friends of theirs, but it happens in every county.

jam_mac_jam

If that is reason, that he thought it was an intruder, its awful sad. Poor man.

jimgoose

Well in fairness, firing at a car like that just because he saw headlights snooping around the road is the act of a lunatic.

Tasfasdf

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

If that is reason, that he thought it was an intruder, its awful sad. Poor man.

Ah ya accidents happen grand so

Stationmaster

Kurtyoo wrote: »

So was the Quinn abduction an accident as well? No. The guy was abducted and beaten.

Here, some chap fired shots out of his house at a car. There could have been children in that car dead because some old git chose to fire shots at a vehicle.

It happened just before midnight. Why would there be kids in a car that late.

Sounds very tragic. A lot of people don't understand the fear that many old single feel living in rural Ireland at the moment.

A lot of facts obviously still to come out so noone really knows why it happened yet.

jam_mac_jam

Tasfasdf wrote: »

Ah ya accidents happen grand so

Don't think that's what I said. But feel free to argue with yourself.

walshb

Stationmaster wrote: »

It happened just before midnight. Why would there be kids in a car that late.

.

What's the relevance of this question?

Kids, adults, humans, people......

All the same, humans!

Tasfasdf

Kurtyoo wrote: »

That truck outside could be an intruder! Must fire some warning shots...

*Shoots dead binman*

Warning shots * aims at the person driving *

bladespin

Tasfasdf wrote: »

Ah ya accidents happen grand so

They do, it's tragic but that's the human animal, we're not infallible, throw a good dose of fear and a gun into the equation and you have a tragedy ready to happen.

AulWan

Warning shots? Aren't they usually where you point the barrel of the gun up, and fire into the air?

Not in the direction of the "intruder"?

riffmongous

It was inevitable given the lack of support for elderly rural people, the crime rate, the lack of response to crime and let's be honest here the Nally cheerleaders have a portion of blame too

walshb

bladespin wrote: »

They do, it's tragic but that's the human animal, we're not infallible, throw a good dose of fear and a gun into the equation and you have a tragedy ready to happen.

Yes, tragedies, accidents and mistakes happen; but some do not deserve to go unchallenged or unpunished, and putting some down to simple accidents doesn't cut it.

Reckless behavior is probably the best description for a lot of these "accidents."

GooglePlus

He should be locked up so, simple as.

Regardless of the fact that he may have thought it was an intruder, you don't go firing "warning shots" about like you're in a western.

walshb

GooglePlus wrote: »

He should be locked up so, simple as.

Regardless of the fact that he may have thought it was an intruder, you don't go firing "warning shots" about like you're in a western.

If they were warning shots then this man really is a danger!

Riskymove

walshb wrote: »

And the reports describing this as a tragic accident? Doesn't sound like any accident to me.

we can speculate all day just as you have

perhaps he brought out the gun but didn't mean to actually fire and it went off

perhaps he meant to fire in warning rather than hit anyone

perhaps he has been robbed/assaulted before and so terrified he panicked


perhaps he is a lunatic or he meant to shoot the guy

but it doesn't mean much until we get more actual details

Odyssey 2005

LuasSimon wrote: »

It shows the fear people are living under in Rural Ireland with all the robberies and burglaries, any noise at night time is met with fear ..

No garda Stations and roaming traveller gangs have Rural Ireland under siege not that Fine Gael Dublin care.

100% correct. The gardai and government have failed rural communities ant incidents like this are the result.

jam_mac_jam

Odyssey 2005 wrote: »

100% correct. The gardai and government have failed rural communities ant incidents like this are the result.

How many Garda stations should there be? who pays for all this. I have sympathy but realistically they can't be everywhere.

weldoninhio

Tasfasdf wrote: »

Warning shots * aims at the person driving *

I haven't seen any reports that the deceased man was in the car. He could have seen a car and fired into a field/treeline and hit him.

riffmongous

Kurtyoo wrote: »

Padraig Nally was tormented so I have sympathy for him.

This guy wasn't known to Gardaí and his only crime was pulling up near his house for a second.

Yes sympathy for him for sure, even though I personallydon't agree with him killing the man

B-D-P--

Lads to put some perspective, the man who shot the gun is 80+ years.
He didn't purposely aim at the car is word on the street, and yes, in rural Ireland, On a road like that, farmers do be sh*tting themselves when a car pulls up outside.

Its often a knacker coming to beat you to a pulp to rob your last €100 you have saved under your mattress.

This man shot his friend, I'm sure he's distraught.

walshb

Riskymove wrote: »

we can speculate all day just as you have

perhaps he brought out the gun but didn't mean to actually fire and it went off

perhaps he meant to fire in warning rather than hit anyone

perhaps he has been robbed/assaulted before and so terrified he panicked


perhaps he is a lunatic or he meant to shoot the guy

but it doesn't mean much until we get more actual details

Yes, and he can easily say that he didn't mean this, that or the other.....

Only he can know what he truly meant.

Fact is that he discharged a shot(s), and a man has lost his very existence...

Red herrings aside, I think he acted in a deliberate fashion, and nothing to do with accidentally going off, etc...

LuasSimon

Failure to deal with all the Traveller gangs robbing all over rural Ireland has created huge fear and distrust, could well be this mans house was broken into before , if your eighty years of age with the possibility of burglars going beating you up or worse is it any wonder a frightened man would shoot first and ask questions later.

walshb

B-D-P-- wrote: »

This man shot his friend, I'm sure he's distraught.

Yes, and if true then this makes his act even more reckless.

He just decided to shoot, and not give two hoots what the consequence was...

Fingers crossed it's not someone "innocent," was he thinking?

Riskymove

walshb wrote: »

Only he can know what he truly meant.

he...and you apparently.....

thread already in trial by social media territory

AulWan

B-D-P-- wrote: »

Lads to put some perspective, the man who shot the gun is 80+ years.
He didn't purposely aim at the car is word on the street, and yes, in rural Ireland, On a road like that, farmers do be sh*tting themselves when a car pulls up outside.

Its often a knacker coming to beat you to a pulp to rob your last €100 you have saved under your mattress.

This man shot his friend, I'm sure he's distraught.

He didn't aim into the air, either.

I am sure his distress will be great consolation to the dead man's family.

Odyssey 2005

Kurtyoo wrote: »

IMO this is murder, plain and simple.

Grand so.

weldoninhio

Kurtyoo wrote: »

IMO this is murder, plain and simple.

Alright Taggart. Case closed.

walshb

Kurtyoo wrote: »

He is no better than the people who attacked the Quinn Director.

Not in agreement here. They set out to deliberately target and hurt another person. Inflict deliberate hurt, terror and pain...

This man seems to have committed a dangerous reckless act that very likely was not forethought/planned...

Bob Harris

Kurtyoo wrote: »

He is no better than the people who attacked the Quinn Director.

Will ya piss off troll.

GooglePlus

B-D-P-- wrote: »

Lads to put some perspective, the man who shot the gun is 80+ years.
He didn't purposely aim at the car is word on the street, and yes, in rural Ireland, On a road like that, farmers do be sh*tting themselves when a car pulls up outside.

Its often a knacker coming to beat you to a pulp to rob your last €100 you have saved under your mattress.

This man shot his friend, I'm sure he's distraught.

Would he not have positioned the gun before firing the weapon. The triggers aren't that sensitive, so he must have known that there would be a spray of pellets fired towards the general direction of the car.

If he wanted to scare anyone, he could have fired in the air, like many have said.

Joe Kane

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

How many Garda stations should there be? who pays for all this. I have sympathy but realistically they can't be everywhere.

There should be at the very least the amount there was before they were shut down particularly in rural Ireland.

This man was 80 years old & if he's like a lot of people in rural Ireland was living in fear. I doubt he set out & planned to murder a man or his neighbour.

Going by a few on here though, he was akin to a fully fledged ISIS terrorist & should be banged up today, no questions asked.

HeidiHeidi

Kurtyoo wrote: »

Recklessness.

So not murder then.

Grand, just so we're clear.

73bc61lyohr0mu

walshb wrote: »

Country is effing lawless.

I can't remember a time than more recently when there was such crime and violence and blatant disregard for common decency. It's very worrying.

Hyperbole much?

Joe Kane

Kurtyoo wrote: »

You shout out and if neccessary fire into the air. Not at a car that for all he knew had children inside.

Or 4 masked raiders with a sawn off shot gun.

Fear can make the best of us do the wrong thing, this man was 80 years old too in fairness. He might not be thinking like a man in his younger years or you. You seem to be fully qualified & know how to react in them situations.

meathstevie

Riskymove wrote: »

we can speculate all day just as you have

perhaps he brought out the gun but didn't mean to actually fire and it went off

......

In all my years of owning my own firearms and having carried handguns, sub machine guns and assault rifles in a professional capacity I still have to see the first one that “just goes off”.... .

Even the simplest single barrel break action shotgun requires a series of deliberate actions before it’s capable of being fired.

snickers

Warning shots my arse you fire warning shots into the air or at the ground not at a car .

Feisar

meathstevie wrote: »

In all my years of owning my own firearms and having carried handguns, sub machine guns and assault rifles in a professional capacity I still have to see the first one that “just goes off”.... .

Even the simplest single barrel break action shotgun requires a series of deliberate actions before it’s capable of being fired.

Gustav sub?

Apart from that, guns go off when the trigger is pulled.

Feisar

A couple of points:

It's terrible that people are living in that sort of fear, that headlights = grab the shotgun.

While I am sympathetic he fired wildly and killed a man, no getting around that

What's all this about kids, I could have been in the car!

To hell with warning shots generally, identify threat and drop it.

LuasSimon

LuasSimon wrote: »

It shows the fear people are living under in Rural Ireland with all the robberies and burglaries, any noise at night time is met with fear ..

No garda Stations and roaming traveller gangs have Rural Ireland under siege not that Fine Gael Dublin care.

its shows that old idiots shouldn't have guns

riffmongous

Joe Kane wrote: »

Or 4 masked raiders with a sawn off shot gun.

Fear can make the best of us do the wrong thing, this man was 80 years old too in fairness. He might not be thinking like a man in his younger years or you. You seem to be fully qualified & know how to react in them situations.

There's no 'in fairness' when an innocent man has just been killed

BorneTobyWilde

Hardly normal for that guy to be on his property at midnight. Must be more to it, why was he there. If it was a normal routine time to call the guy would have expected him, not be jumping to conclusions .

Portsalon

LuasSimon wrote: »

No garda Stations and roaming traveller gangs have Rural Ireland under siege not that Fine Gael Dublin care.

The nearest Garda stations to this tragedy are Knock (2½ km) and Ballyhaunis (5 km). Literally light years away :rolleyes:

jimgoose

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Hardly normal for that guy to be on his property at midnight. Must be more to it, why was he there. If it was a normal routine time to call the guy would have expected him, not be jumping to conclusions .

Was he, though? I'm getting the impression that the car was on the public road when it was hit.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

We’ll have to wait and see. But if he wasn’t acting in self-defence i.e. the man he shot was minding his own business, I can’t imagine he’ll just be let away with it. The ‘people in rural Ireland are living in fear’ thing is being exaggerated just a smidge by some in this thread. Where I grew up at least, it’s still a place where people look out for each other. Car lights outside the house wouldn’t have most people reaching for the ol’ shotgun.

weldoninhio

jimgoose wrote: »

Was he, though? I'm getting the impression that the car was on the public road when it was hit.

Where are you getting this impression?? I've read nowhere that the dead man was in a car, or that a car was hit. It's not reported anywhere I have read.

bladespin

Kurtyoo wrote: »

I don't know what it is, murder, whatever. He killed an innocent man because he selfishly and recklessly shot at a car.

It can't be murder unless it was premeditated and intentional, no one knows the details as yet.

jimgoose

weldoninhio wrote: »

Where are you getting this impression?? I've read nowhere that the dead man was in a car, or that a car was hit. It's not reported anywhere I have read.

The photographs in this article. Also, lines like "It is believed there is a car at the scene which has evidence of gunshots on it.":

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/mayo-shooting-garda-investigating-if-elderly-man-thought-deceased-was-an-intruder-38509720.html

jimgoose

Portsalon wrote: »

Kids in a car at midnight down a remote rural lane in deepest Mayo :eek: - I assume that you've contacted Tusla?

No, because presumably he's not a window-licking insaniac. :pac:

YFlyer

Was it a rifle or shotgun?