Jury shown video footage of fatal shooting of George Nkencho at inquest

Seán McCárthaigh

Video footage of the fatal shooting of George Nkencho by armed gardai in the driveway of his family home in west Dublin five years ago has been shown to a jury at an inquest into his death.

A sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court was provided with a recording of the fatal confrontation between the deceased who was carrying a knife and members of the Garda Armed Support Unit (ASU).

The video had been captured by a member of the public out walking his dog in a nearby park.

It recorded four shots being fired at Mr Nkencho at close distance in four seconds with a fifth and final shot heard four seconds later after which he fell to the ground.

The deceased’s mother, Blessing Nkencho, sat quietly in the back row of the courtroom, wiping tears from her eyes with a handkerchief as she watched the footage of her son’s final moments.

Several of her children left the hearing temporarily as the video was played a number of times to the jury.

Counsel for An Garda Síochána, Ronan Kennedy SC, told the inquest that there would be evidence that a total of six shots were fired with the video not capturing the first shot.

He also pointed out that it did not record two attempts to taser Mr Nkencho before shots were fired by members of the ASU or the deployment of pepper spray.

Mr Nkencho (27) sustained fatal gunshot wounds in the incident outside his home at Manorfields Drive, Clonee, Co Dublin on December 30th 2020 shortly after he had been involved in a disturbance at a nearby supermarket.

The young man, the eldest of five siblings whose family originally came from Nigeria, was pronounced dead a short time later at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown.

The inquest had already heard evidence that Mr Nkencho had carried out an unprovoked assault on a manager at the Eurospar store in Hartstown as well as threatening staff with a knife a short time before the fatal incident.

The deceased’s family claim the level of force used against him was disproportionate.

However, the DPP directed that no prosecution should arise over the circumstances of Mr Nkencho’s death following an investigation by Fiosrú, previously known as the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission.

On the fourth day of the inquest on Friday, an eyewitness, Alan O’Reilly, said he had been walking his dog when he noticed an ASU jeep come into the Manorfields estate.

Mr O’Reilly said he could hear a lot of shouting including someone calling out: “Get down, get down.”

He told the inquest that he did not initially realise that gardaí were shouting at Mr Nkencho whom he recalled was walking at a normal pace before turning into a house.

Mr O’Reilly said it looked like a garda pulled out a gun and there appeared to be a standoff as Mr Nkencho was trying to get into the house.

He outlined seeing the deceased appearing to swing something at gardaí when he heard a shot.

After the firing had stopped, Mr O’Reilly said he heard someone cry out: “They shot George, they shot George.”

He admitted thinking originally that gardaí were just shooting in the air and not at the deceased.

Mr O’Reilly admitted posting the video to his Snapchat account but later deleted it on the advice of his girlfriend.

Cross-examined by Mr Kennedy, the witness said he did not recall anything about tasers being used.

He agreed with counsel that a lot of things had happened before he started filming the incident.