Gun dealers quizzed in schoolboy shooting probe
Gun dealers have been questioned in a bid to trace the owner of a rifle used in the accidental shooting of a schoolboy in the North, it was revealed today.
Five-year-old Darragh Somers remains critically ill on a life support machine after being hit in the back of the head.
St Patrick’s Primary School, near Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, reopened today for the first time since Friday’s tragedy.
Darragh was with up to 180 children in the playground in Mullinaskea when he was shot.
Police have carried out ballistic tests on at least 10 locally owned and legally held .22 rifles as part of their investigation.
It emerged today that officers also questioned a number of gun dealers about sales of weapons.
They are also trying to recover similar calibre guns in circulation that have not been licensed.
Darragh is believed to have been hit by a stray bullet fired from a .22 rifle by someone out shooting vermin on neighbouring fields and high land.
His parents, who are keeping a bedside vigil at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, say they are satisfied the shooting was accidental.
Staff from the Western Education and Library Board’s critical incident team were at the school today to offer counselling to teachers and children returning to class.
