Staff 'feared for their lives' during fatal robbery
Terrified staff and customers feared for their lives during a foiled armed robbery at a village post office in which two raiders were shot dead, an inquest heard today.
Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard that gardai lay in wait for three men who tried to carry out the raid in The Village Store, Lusk, north Co Dublin.
Colm Griffin, aged 33, of Canon Lillis Avenue, and Eric Hopkins, aged 24, of Lower Rutland Street, both Dublin, were shot dead by the emergency response unit as they tried to steal €48,500 on the morning of May 26, 2005.
A third man, Gavin Farrelly, of Lower Sheriff Street, Dublin, surrendered at the scene.
He was sentenced in April to 10 years in jail, with two years suspended, after pleading guilty to attempted robbery and allowing himself to be carried in a stolen car.
Detective Superintendent Dominic Hayes, a member of the National Bureau Criminal Investigation unit, told the inquest he had received confidential information that an armed robbery was planned at the post office in the store as cash was being delivered.
As the senior officer waited on the outskirts of the town in an unmarked vehicle, gardai identified three vehicles in the area.
He said Griffin, who was known to him, travelled in one while a second was registered to his associates.
After the cash was delivered under garda escort to the store, a car drove into its rear yard.
Gelena Beitilere and three colleagues were working behind the deli counter when three men in black masks came through its rear door shouting carrying a handgun.
“I was very afraid at this time,” she said.
“The other girls were crying during all of this. There was screaming and shouting.”
The terrified worker said as they lay on the ground she heard something banging against the glass of the post office and shots.
Then under a counter she saw someone on the floor with blood on his abdomen and gloves, the inquest heard.
“Someone said something like, ’can you hear me? Can you hear me?”’ she added.
Customer Olga Labecka said she was at the till when she heard shouting ’garda, get down’, followed by two shots.
She told Dublin City Coroner Dr Brian Farrell she ran for the door where she met an armed garda who told her to get down.
“I was in fear of my life when I heard shots and that’s why I ran,” she said.
“It was very confusing.”
She said she later saw one man in handcuffs who she recognised from the local Stage nightclub.
Shop manager Victoria Kumincate, from Lithuania, told the inquest she was counting the previous night’s takings in an office at the rear of a store when she heard banging and men shouting.
On a CCTV monitor she saw a man with his head covered pressed the panic button. It was the second robbery during her shift in less than five months.
“I was terrified and upset,” she said.
“I was worried for everybody’s life and the staff working in the shop.”
Ms Kumincate said when she left the office she came face to face with a garda and saw three men lying on the ground – one on his front in handcuffs and two injured with bare chests with gardaí giving them first aid.
The following day, investigations by a computer forensic officer revealed the store had eight working cameras, but the manager had failed to press the record button on the CCTV system on the morning of May 26.
However, Det Gda Gerard Keane said a second digital system and the post office’s own security tapes had picked up some of the incident.
Security was tight at the city courthouse, with witnesses, family members and the media forced to walk through an x-ray machine and have their bags checked.
Heavy curtains were also hung around the witness box, ready to be pulled to protect the identity of five members of An Garda Siochana when they give evidence.
Two of the gardaí will be known as Garda A and Garda B.
More than 40 witnesses are due to give evidence at the inquest over the next three to four days.
The jury of eight men and three women heard the door at the back of the deli was left unlocked all day so staff could get access to an outdoor storage unit, freezers and bins.
Customer Noel Murphy and delivery man Stephen Lawless were at the counter when the raiders emerged.
The gunman pointed his pistol directly at the pair, ordering them to the ground, the inquest heard.
Mr Murphy, a plasterer, told the inquest the gunman was getting more and more agitated and aggressive, keeping an eye on them and the post office with the weapon stretched out in front of him.
He said he heard someone shout ’armed police, armed police, drop your weapons,’ and saw the gunman turn to face officers with his gun still pointing out.
“I put my hands over my head,” he said. “I heard shots.”
Both men said a man – not the gunman – fell to the ground.
“It’s getting to me now,” added Mr Lawless. “It’s like delayed shock.”
The hearing continues tomorrow.
