Victim's girlfriend saw killer fire shots

Irish Herald

By Michael Lavery and Claire Murphy

Tuesday July 15 2008

A murder victim's girlfriend broke down today as she told how a gunman pumped six bullets into his victim on a Dublin street.

Valerie White told an inquest jury that she saw the gunman, dressed in a three-quarter-length camouflage jacket and blue jeans, fire shots at 30-year-old Gary Bryan.

The jury heard he was hit by six bullets from a handgun and probably died immediately at the scene at Bunting Road, in the Walkinstown area, on September 26, 2006.

The murder is believed to have been carried out as part of the gangland war between Drimnagh and Crumlin criminals which has claimed 11 lives.

Cheered

The gunman and an accomplice, who escaped in a stolen vehicle, cheered as they made their getaway from the murder scene, the jury heard.

There had been an extensive garda investigation into the homicide, but the Director of Public Prosecutions had decided there was not enough evidence to prosecute, Det Insp Brian Sutton, who investigated the killing, said.

Valerie White, Gary Bryan’s then girlfriend, told how the two had spent an ordinary day shopping, eating at McDonald’s and buying cigarettes before calling to her mother’s house.

Gary was working on his blue Micra car when he said to her that he had spotted a “fella” driving by in a VW Golf car and that “I have to get out of here”.

She went back into the house to make coffee when her mother suddenly “popped up and said, ‘Valerie, something is happening’.”

She then heard a shot from a gun and ran out when she saw the gunman. He was standing over Gary who was lying on a grass verge.

She ran towards the man, who appeared “a bit startled” and saw he had black fringe which she thought might be a wig and was wearing brown sunglasses. He was stocky build and he ran towards a silver car with a spoiler.

The dead man had reportedly been associated with those involved in a long-running feud between criminal gangs in Crumlin and Drimnagh.

Bryan had been charged with the murder of Paul Warren of |St Teresa’s Gardens in February, 2004. However, his trial at |the Central Criminal Court collapsed in February, 2006.

- Michael Lavery and Claire Murphy