Men targeted by shooting 'blessed to be alive'
Two Ballymun men have told a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury they were "blessed to be alive" after running for their lives as they were shot at from a car outside their home.
John Paul and Eugene McElligott were giving evidence on the second day of the trial of their neighbour, Derek Devoy (aged 24), who is charged with the shooting.
Mr Devoy, of Balbutcher Drive, has pleaded not guilty to possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and alternative charges of possession of a firearm and ammunition for an unlawful purpose at Cranogue Close, Ballymun on September 19, 2005.
John Paul McElligott told prosecuting counsel, Ms Mary Rose Gearty BL, that he was standing on the road across from his mother's house talking to his brother about a "horse lorry" he was thinking of buying.
He said he saw a car coming up the road and pulling a handbrake turn near them as his sister, Vicky McElligott, shouted at them: "Run! Run!".
He said the car spun to face back the direction it had come from and he saw a man leaning out the back door with a gun and then heard "bang bang bang."
He told Ms Gearty they ran to a neighbour's home and pushed the woman of the house inside, kicked the door shut and ran out into the back garden.
When he saw he was not being followed he went back inside and found the house was "in bits". He said his mother was outside crying on the street and whole incident lasted about 90 seconds from start to finish.
He agreed with defence counsel, Mr Peter Finlay SC (with Mr Paul Greene BL), that he was "completely terrified" during the incident.
He said he could see a man leaning out of the back window of the car with a gun in his hands but told Mr Finlay: "I was not hanging about to ask him his name."
Mr Eugene McElligott said he first saw the car as he walked with his brother to their friend's house. He said the car first stopped in the middle of the road before it accelerated and his sister shouted at him to run.
He "took off my toes running" behind his brother into the house and as he looked behind him when he got in the door he said: "I saw someone all in black hanging out of the car with two hands on a gun".
He continued into the house and up the stairs as he heard gun fire, glass breaking and "wind going past my ear". He said he could hear his sister outside shouting: "It's Bottler, it's Bottler".
The jury has been told that "Bottler" was the accused's nickname.
He told Ms Gearty he came back down the stairs and saw "the gaff was broken up".
He agreed with Mr Finlay that he only started running to his neighbour's house after he heard a shot fired: "I was thinking about walking, but I thought I better run."
He told Mr Finlay he was "blessed" to reach the neighbour's house uninjured and he would be "surprised if the whole incident lasted a minute".
Ms Janet Murphy, the partner of Mr Eugene McElligott, told Ms Gearty that as she travelled behind Mr Devoy in traffic earlier that day she saw him reach into the glove box of his mother's car and take out a gun.
She told Mr Finlay there was "a bit" of bad blood between the families. Asked by Mr Finlay if it was more then "a bit" of bad blood and if it was true that Eugene had been shot before, she responded: "Who are you saying shot him?"
She agreed that she said in her statement to gardaí she "thought" it was a gun that Mr Devoy took from the glove box, but said she was now sure that he held up what looked like a "cowboy gun" in the gap between the seats.
She agreed with Mr Finlay that she made her statement to gardaí after hearing details from Eugene of the shooting, saying: "It was the talk of Ballymun."
