Detective Garda Colm Horkan killed in Castlerea, Roscommon - [MOD WARNING POST #1]

froog wrote: »

probably been asked a bunch of times already, but is it normal for a garda to carry a gun on regular community patrols?

He was a detective, so yes.

TheCitizen wrote: »

He was an awful eejit to have anything to do with here. He's clearly a fruitcake now as well, but at one time he was a prominent journalist that would appear on TV all the time as an expert opinion maker type. Now he's just an eejit.

Did he have a child with the singer Sinead O'Connor.

I have a particularly regretful feeling around this awful loss.

It was shown last week when a Garda was injured in the leg when his own service pistol went off as he was present at an Israeli embassy premises and now today with this awful killing.

The standard Garda service pistol, the SIG Sauer P226, has no safety catch....

Its only moving elements are the slide, the magazine release, the de-cocker and the trigger, but it does not have a thumb release safety catch above and beside the trigger guard which is a feature of many other 9mm service pistols.

I'm not saying that this absolutely had anything to do with either incident, maybe the killer last night knew his guns, but if a belligerent suspect was to get a hold of a weapon in this fashion, I would suggest any fool who has seen a movie would know how to de-cock and pull the trigger on a pistol, whereas they might not know in the heat of a moment to locate and disengage a safety catch.

I'm sure it'll all emerge in the criminal prosecutions to follow, but thats my opinion as someone with a lay knowledge of firearms.

It's a remarkable coincidence that an Irish cop gets 15 bullets shot at him, which kill him, just days after Black Lives Matter start a campaigner to defund the police.

Truly remarkable.

TheCitizen wrote: »

He was an awful eejit to have anything to do with here. He's clearly a fruitcake now as well, but at one time he was a prominent journalist that would appear on TV all the time as an expert opinion maker type. Now he's just an eejit.

Even when he was a prominent Journalist he was a fruitcake. Coincidentally he is from Castlerea.

Just to preface this with: in no way am I blaming Detective Garda Colm Horkan or any other Gardai for the shooting.

I do wonder if there's a discussion to be had within the Gardai as to whether the practice of routinely arming detectives should be continued.

To my knowledge the majority of armed detectives on routine duties will only be carrying a pair of handcuffs and their firearm; with no other options should be they become involved in any kind of confrontation.

Coupled with the fact that firearms are not readily available in this country; any confrontation with armed detectives immediately has the possibility of becoming lethal with very little warning purely because the detective can employ either his fists/body or his firearm with nothing in-between.

We now have a significant number of Armed Support units with two fully armed and trained Gardai around the country; surely the ideal here would be to increase the number of these further such that detectives can focus on investigating crimes and the Armed Support units can focus on incidents where armed support might be required.

Given our population density and some of the distances involved it might not be practical given available budgets; and there may equally be a number of good reasons to keep arming detectives routinely; but anything that might prevent this type of thing from happening again will hopefully be explored.

Oh my god. I cannot believe it. I only heard about the shooting when President Michael D Higgins was giving his statement outside the Ara's on RTÉ News via Youtube today. To say that I am shocked about this murder is an understatement. This murder is a horrible incident & a tragic outcome for Detective Horkan's family, friends & colleagues.

I have a cousin of mine currently working as a member of the Gardai at the moment. I hope to god that wherever he is now in his job either now or in the future that he doesn't get shot while he is carrying out his line of duty.

I hope Detective Garda Horkan RIP.

Someone please tell Charlie Flanagan how to pronounce the name of Castlerea.

Akesh wrote: »

Should people not have knives in their homes in case someone breaks in and stabs you with it? Bizarre post and logic to say the least.

Knives in the house are for the dinner.
I have to agree that armed detectives need to be closer scrutinised. Firearm stand offs are mercifully rare in this country and may it stay that way. No police officer should be left alone with a loaded weapon in any circumstances. Way too many things could go wrong, as has happened here.

Witcher wrote: »

Detectives carry a spray and a baton too.

The work of detective Gardai brings them in close contact with serious criminals that are frequently armed, that's why detectives are armed. They also provide a district level armed support function to uniformed members. There may be one ASU mobile for a division and they may be the far side of the division when they're needed or already engaged with a call and unable to offer immediate assistance i.e. you're ****ed.

When you're at a hairy enough call and the DDU go by at least you know there's someone in the area if it goes south, ASU could be 10/20 mins away.

I didn't realise they would be armed routinely with batons and pepper spray; can't say I've ever come across a detective and noticed either.

I understand why they're armed; the argument I'm making is that the role of armed Gardai would probably be better provided by more of the dedicated armed units which have been ramping up in recent years. Whether that's viable in terms of resourcing is another question. Then I suppose you start getting into the realms of routinely arming more and more uniformed Gardai which I doubt many people would want either.

I mean ultimately I think this was likely just one of those encounters you can't really legislate for given any kind of reasonable budget and the realities of policing modern Ireland; but it doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

political analyst wrote: »

But why kill a garda? The killer must have known that he would get 40 years imprisonment - even with remission he'll be behind bars for over 25 years.

I doubt he was thinking about the consequences. It sounds like they had runs in the past and the suspect snapped on this particular occasion.

Akesh wrote: »

Should people not have knives in their homes in case someone breaks in and stabs you with it? Bizarre post and logic to say the least.

If you don't have a knife in your home and someone breaks in who isn't armed with a knife; you cannot be stabbed with a knife.

The logic is perfectly fine.

If you want to say that Detective Gardai should be routinely armed then that's perfectly fine too; and I don't necessarily disagree with that sentiment. I'm just offering an opinion on an alternative which may prevent another tragedy similar to this one from occurring.

If we had unlimited budget and resourcing I would like to see all armed detectives and indeed all Gardai full stop partnered while on duty; but we do not.

pauldavis123 wrote: »

It's a remarkable coincidence that an Irish cop gets 15 bullets shot at him, which kill him, just days after Black Lives Matter start a campaigner to defund the police.

Truly remarkable.

You do realise that BLM and campaigns about defunding police are happening in the US.
It has nothing to do with this incident.