An witness has told a murder trial that he heard the man who shot Det Garda Colm Horkan say that “if I didn’t kill him, he would have killed me”.
The Central Criminal Court also heard on Thursday that the accused Stephen Silver told gardaí that the detective’s gun “kept going off” as they grappled over it.
Garda Enda Rowley told prosecution counsel Michael Delaney SC that when he arrived at the scene in Castlerea, Co Roscommon he saw the body of Det Horkan lying on the ground at the junction of Main Street and Patrick Street while Garda Aidan Fallon was holding the arm of Mr Silver, who was in handcuffs.
Garda Rowley, Garda Fallon and a third officer put Mr Silver into a patrol car and brought him to Castlerea Garda station.
During the drive, Garda Rowley noted that Mr Silver had said: “This has been a serious bad night. I didn’t know he was a guard. He was wearing a Tommy Hilfiger jacket. I was wearing a luminous jacket. I was going for a pizza. He knew James [Coyne, Mr Silver’s friend] but he didn’t know me. I thought this sort of thing only happened in America. What is going on in Castlerea?”
Garda Rowley described Mr Silver as agitated and “somewhat non-compliant”. At the station Garda Rowley cautioned Mr Silver and asked if he was the one who shot Det Horkan. He noted his response as: “No, well yes. We were grappling over it and it went off. It kept going off.”
Garda Rowley asked Mr Silver “did you pull the trigger?”
“Yes,” he responded.
“How many times?” the garda asked.
Ears ringing
Mr Silver replied: “It kept going off, the gun. My ears are ringing, I never used a gun. I can’t hear anything. Can you get me a tea? I’m in shock.”
Garda Rowley returned to the scene of the shooting and was present when a doctor pronounced Det Horkan dead at 3.07am.
Mr Silver (46), a motorbike mechanic from Aughavard, Foxford, Co Mayo, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Det Garda Horkan on June 17th, 2020 in Castlerea.
He is charged with committing the murder knowing or being reckless as to whether Det Garda Horkan was a member of An Garda Síochána acting in accordance with his duty. Mr Silver has pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.
Marcus Silvera, originally from Brazil but living in Castlerea, told prosecution counsel James Dwyer SC that on June 17th, 2020, shortly before midnight, he heard what he knew to be a shooting.
“I am used to shooting in Brazil so I know what a shot is,” he said.
He went to his window and as he walked he heard four more shots, 10 to 15 seconds after the first shots.
Mr Silvera said that from the window he could see a body in the middle of the road facing away from him and another man with long hair, a black leather jacket and a bag on his back.
He looked like a “biker” and he was walking around, over and back, “like making an eight symbol” and he was shouting towards the body: “He’s a f***ing w***er, he is a f***ing w***er. I didn’t do anything ...”
On his knees
Mr Silvera said he saw a male and female garda walking towards the man. The female garda shouted at him to put his hands behind his back and get on his knees and the man got to his knees and put his hands behind his head, he said.
He said the female garda asked where the gun was and Mr Silvera remembered the man replying, “over there” and pointing towards a car parked further along the street.
The female garda told him to remove his backpack, which he did, before throwing it to his left side.
“He kept saying, ‘why are you doing this to me, I didn’t do anything’ all the time, he wouldn’t stop,” the witness said.
He said the gardaí handcuffed the man while he was still on his knees and then moved him to the curb.
Throughout, Mr Silvera said he could hear the man saying, ‘I didn’t do anything, he is a f***ing w***er.”
While one garda carried out CPR, the witness said he heard the man saying, “you are doing it wrong, you are doing it wrong”. The garda, he said, told the man to “shut up”.
After gardaí had tried chest compressions three times, Mr Silvera said the man said: ‘Look, leave him alone, he is dead, he is gone, he is a f***ing w***er, just leave him alone, he is gone’.
When two gardaí “grabbed the shooter” by either arm, Mr Silvera said, the man began to “lose his head” and got “seriously angry”.
He said the shooter repeatedly insisted that he had not done anything and asked: “Why are you doing this to me?”
Under cross-examination, the witness told Gerardine Small SC, for Mr Silver, that he also heard the shooter say: “If I didn’t kill him, he would have killed me.”
The trial continues in front of Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of seven men and five women.