Locals live in terror as bloodbath hits streets

THE city centre was the scene of another gangland shooting this week which occurred a mere 100 yards from Larkin Community College at Cathal Brugha Street, where children were attending school.
Gareth Hutch (35) was shot dead at around 10am on Tuesday at the Avondale flats complex at North Cumberland Street in the north inner city.
Witnesses reported a large number of shots being fired by two men in a black BMW.
The dead man was a cousin of Gary Hutch, who was gunned down in Spain last year, and was also the nephew of murdered taxi driver Eddie Hutch.
He was also the nephew of Gerry Hutch, also known as The Monk.
The murder is believed to be linked to the ongoing Kinahan-Hutch feud.
This is the seventh murder in the capital since the feud began last September following the murder of Gary Hutch, who was shot dead in Spain by the Kinahan cartel.
Locals in the north inner city are now living in fear following six shootings in the last few months, including one that resulted in the murder of innocent man Martin O’Rourke at Sherriff Street.
On the day of Gareth Hutch’s murder this week, one local woman, who lives around the corner from where the shooting took place, told The Gazette: “You’d be afraid of your life living here now. It’s getting worse. I’m afraid to let the kids play in the park across the road.
“My kids play in those flats and I go in there looking for them at night. They were in school this morning, thank God, otherwise they’d probably be playing in those flats.
“I have to tell them tonight when they come home that they can’t play over there now.”
The woman said she knew the Hutch family when she was growing up, and said: “They were always a nice family when we were kids, but things are getting bad now.
“At the end of the day, someone has died, and it’s someone’s child..”
A teacher at Larkin Community College, which is situated across the road from the scene of the shooting, told The Gazette that “you can get a sense of fear here today; it’s not a nice day for the area”.
Oksana Kutcyulim, restaurant manager at The Admiral restaurant, which is located about 200 yards from the scene of the shooting, said she is worried for her staff because many of them walk by the flats every day on their way to work.
“I live in Mountjoy Square and I do feel scared living here, now. It’s a worry for us because you never know what people might have hidden in their pockets.
“A few times, the gardai have come in here because fights have come into the restaurant from the street.
“The guys fighting will lock themselves in the toilets, and gardai will try to get in through the door. Things like that would happen about once a month.
“If I had the business in Dublin 4, this wouldn’t happen – it’s the location. We would like to have more Irish customers, but they are scared to come [here], they prefer to go for a dinner in other parts of Dublin.”
Meanwhile, a convicted armed robber believed to be the intended target in the Sherriff Street murder last month was injured in a shooting in Ballyfermot at the weekend.
Keith Murtagh, 32, is believed to be linked to the Hutch gang and was targeted for that reason.
The 32-year-old escaped with his life after up to nine rounds were fired into the window of a house in Ballyfermot.
He was hospitalised along with a woman in her 30s after the incident, which happened in Cherry Orchard.