An eyewitness has told the Detective Garda Colm Horkan murder trial that he heard the "shooter" say: "If I didn't kill him, he would have killed me."
The Central Criminal Court also heard today that the accused man, Stephen Silver, told gardai that the detective's gun “kept going off” as they grappled over it.
Gda Enda Rowley told prosecution counsel Michael Delaney SC that when he arrived at the scene in Castlerea he saw the body of Gda Horkan lying on the ground at the junction of Main St and Patrick St while Gda Aidan Fallon was holding the arm of Mr Silver, who was in handcuffs.
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Gda Rowley, Gda Fallon and a third garda put Mr Silver into a patrol car and brought him to Castlerea garda station.
On the way, Gda Rowley noted that Mr Silver 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?”
Gda Rowley described Mr Silver as agitated and “somewhat non-compliant”. At the station Gda Rowley cautioned Mr Silver and asked if he was the one who shot Det Gda Horkan. He noted his response as: “No, well yes. We were grappling over it and it went off. It kept going off.”
Gda Rowley asked, “did you pull the trigger?”
