Police ombudsman investigating circumstances of Evan Fitzgerald's death

Irish Times

a day ago

Officials from Fiosrú, the Police Ombudsman, are investigating the circumstances around the death of Evan Fitzgerald, who took his life in a
Carlow
shopping centre last month.
Investigators from the ombudsman's office are in close contact with the Fitzgerald family and providing them with regular updates, sources said.
The investigation is mandated under law as the 22-year-old from Wicklow had interactions with the gardaí around the time of his death, which occurred on June 1st in Fairgreen Shopping Centre. Mr Fitzgerald fired several shots into the air
using a stolen shotgun
before turning the gun on himself.
However, Fiosrú also confirmed it is not investigating two other referrals relating to the actions gardaí took while investigating Mr Fitzgerald for possession of firearms last March.
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Politicians have accused gardaí of attempting to 'entrap' the young man during the investigation and of misleading a judge.
An Garda Síochána
has strongly denied the accusations and said it used standard, internationally accepted tactics to protect the safety of the public.
On Monday, Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan declined to comment on the matter until two linked court cases are completed. A spokesman for the Minister said he has been briefed by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris on the case 'both orally and in writing'.
Speaking to The Irish Times on Monday, a spokeswoman for Fiosrú detailed its activity in relation to the case.
She said on the day after Mr Fitzgerald's death, it received a referral from a Garda superintendent under section 203 (1) of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024.
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This mandates that An Garda Síochána must refer any case to the Ombudsman where it appears 'that the act or omission of a member of garda personnel may have resulted in the death of, or serious harm to, a person'.
Mr Fitzgerald took his life after armed gardaí arrived on the scene in response to reports of gunfire. Gardaí did not fire any rounds.
Fiosrú confirmed it has appointed a senior officer to conduct the investigation. 'This matter remains open and under investigation. Fiosrú has and will continue to liaise with Evan Fitzgerald's family in this regard,' the spokeswoman said.
Separately, she said the ombudsman received 'a notification of an incident of concern' on May 21st relating to the case. It is understood the referral related to allegations that gardaí had mislead a District Court judge during a previous bail hearing for Mr Fitzgerald.
During the hearing, the judge was told gardaí were still investigating the source of the firearms Mr Fitzgerald had in his possession when he was stopped by members of the Emergency Response Unit in March.
It later emerged that undercover gardaí sold him the two guns after being tipped off that Mr Fitzgerald was attempting to source weapons on the internet.
Both weapons had been decommissioned by gardaí. One of them was a G3 assault rifle stolen by the IRA from Norwegian reserves in 1984 and recovered more than 20 years ago.
Labour TD
Alan Kelly
and Independent senator Michael McDowell have characterised the operation as
'entrapment'
of Mr Fitzgerald.
Fiosrú said that on receiving the complaint it had requested further information from gardaí. After examining this, it opted not to open an investigation.
Last Wednesday, Fiosrú received a further referral relating to An Garda Síochána action, this time from the commissioner. Mr Harris made the referral after politicians accused the force of misleading the court.
Again, the ombudsman's office decided the matter did not warrant a full investigation.
'As the matters concerned were the same in substance as those outlined in the previous notification of 21st of May 2025, there was nothing further to be considered by Fiosrú,' the spokeswoman said, adding that it cannot, by law, make any further comment for the moment.
Speaking last week, the commissioner defended An Garda Síochána's actions in the case and raised the recent school shooting 'by a lone gunman' in Austria, which left 11 people dead.
'This is sadly a more frequent occurrence,' he said.
'There is very insidious material on the internet which seeks to radicalise young people. We have to look at the individual and the threat to the general public and deal with that appropriately.
'I have to say, this was a very successful operation in that we made sure a threat to the public did not arise from the circumstances we were dealing with.'