Innocents who were caught in wrong place at the wrong time
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IT was indiscriminate and shocking and it left two men with serious injuries.
As locals walked around Fairview Strand in Dublin's north inner city yesterday morning, gardai combed the street in search of clues to the savage shootings.
A queue of elderly women on their way to 10am Mass made their way past garda tape to reach the Church of the Visitation on the corner of Philipsburg Avenue.
"I knew something big was after happening when I heard the garda cars coming down the road," a resident of nearby Clonliffe Road said. "There were police everywhere."
"I said a prayer for them fellas who were shot at Mass," her friend said. "I'm a bit shocked but I'm not afraid. I'm not going to let people like that annoy me."
Socialise
For Brian Masterson, the Players Lounge was a regular spot for the 31-year-old to socialise with friends on a Sunday night.
However, as he made his way home, he was met with three bullets to his lower chest, back and side -- all for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Outside his East Wall family home, friends of the victim described him as a friendly, nice man who kept to himself, single and unemployed, who was trying to build a life for himself in a new apartment in Balbriggan.
"Brian's just an innocent in all of this. He was just on his way home when it all happened," his father Barry Masterson said last night.
"He's inside now resting. He was let out of the hospital a couple of hours ago.
On Sunday night Brian had been out with his friend Austin Purcell, known by his friends as "Aussie". Mr Purcell's Marino, Dublin 3, family home was empty yesterday as his loved ones kept a vigil by his bedside in hospital. He remained in critical condition last night after becoming an innocent victim of the brutal shooting.
- Michael McHale
Irish Independent
