A Garda has told how he ran into a building to save children while a gunman opened fire - despite not being tactically trained.
Detective Garda Padraig Harrington, GRA representative for the Cork Division, says he’s concerned that armed officers are not tactically trained to deal with such incidents - and he’s calling for proper training to be put in place.
In 2014, Det Gda Harrington attended a horrific incident in which a family, including young children, needed to be rescued as a gunman was indiscriminately opening fire from a window.
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The top officer, who has carried a firearm for over 15 years, says a fight or flight decision was made to rescue the family - but he now questions whether he was properly trained to deal with such a dangerous incident.
“In that incident in 2014 we evacuated a family. Now thankfully it worked out brilliant but I did think should I have done that or shouldn’t I have done that to this day. That guy fired five shots at us. He had only fired three by the time we went in to get the family.
“He fired two other shots afterwards, and you know should we have brought them out while he was still out there armed and firing shots, I don’t know.
“As I say it worked out brilliantly afterwards but what we are looking for for our members now is real life tactics training - as in if you go into that building, you know, this is the way you do it.”
During the incident Det Gda Harrington and his colleague rescued young children - carrying one out and covering them in a ballistic vest as the gunman continued to open fire from above.
“I did have to turn around to a colleague in uniform that had never carried a firearm in his life and say will you take off your ballistic vest there and wrap it around that child there and bring them out to the car. We were the closest armed people. He was just sitting in the top window and firing shots.”
Det Gda Harrington raised the issue in a motion to the annual conference of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) in Westport, Co Mayo this week.
He says he’s concerned that armed members are not trained to deal with such incidents, and feels something should be done now.
“So with anybody like myself, armed detectives, all you receive is you go on a gun course which is a week long and after that you just have to recertify three times a year.
“But it doesn’t teach you the tactics of if you face this situation, what do you do, do you go into a house, or what do you do when you stop a car etc etc. All we’re saying is you should be trained for that,” he said.
Meanwhile, Garda James Morrisroe, GRA representative for the Cavan Monaghan region, says there’s huge concern over the fact that officers cannot attend incidents in a disputed border area.
Garda Morrisroe says officers often find themselves unable to attend incidents in Coleman's Island - due to the fact that there are no protocols in place allowing them to do so.
It potentially means that if a serious incident occurs, gardai are prevented from being able to go into the area.
“It’s a huge health and safety issue for members of An Garda Siochana number one on the frontline and then it is a safety issue for members of the public who aren’t receiving an immediate response.
“There are no protocols put in place nationally to police the area,” Gda Morrisroe explained. The only way to get to Colemans island is through the North.
“So you have a fully qualified armed unit ready to go to any incident on the border, but they can’t go to Colemans island because the protocols aren’t in place.
“There’s no international authorization for them to cross the border with their firearms,” he said.
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