GARDAÍ INVESTIGATING the shooting dead of Dublin criminal Stephen Byrne have arrested a boy aged 16. His arrest follows the questioning of two other people, one of whom is a 15-year-old boy.
The 16-year-old was arrested at 2pm yesterday in Dublin’s north inner-city. He was detained under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and is being questioned at Store Street Garda station. He can be held for 72 hours without charge.
Gardaí believe the boy was one of a number of people who were talking to Byrne when he was shot dead at about 4.40pm on Tuesday at the junction of St Laurence Place East and Sheriff Street in Dublin’s north inner-city.
Byrne (32), a convicted criminal, lived at Mariner’s Port, just yards from where he was killed. He received a phone call while in his house and went out to meet somebody on the street. As he was talking to a group of people, a gunman approached on a mountain bike, shooting Byrne in the head and chest.
Those talking to Byrne fled as the gunman moved in. The killer, who used a handgun, escaped on his bike. The 16-year-old arrested yesterday was one of the group talking to Byrne just seconds before the shooting occurred.
The 15-year-old and a man in his 20s arrested on Tuesday night have been released without charge. Both were also among the group talking to Byrne.
The 15-year-old was detained for two nights but freed yesterday. All three arrested people are from the Sheriff Street area.
Gardaí believe Byrne was killed as part of a gangland feud between rival factions around Sheriff Street that has cost five lives since 2006.
Byrne was a suspect for one of the earlier killings, that of Stephen Ledden (28), who was shot in a case of mistaken identity in December 2006.
Two of the other victims of the feud were cousins of Byrne. Gerard Batt Byrne (25) was shot in 2006 while Aiden Byrne (32) was shot in February.
The factions were once all members of the same gang. It split when its former leader was accused, and later convicted, of raping a woman over a sustained period from when she was a child.
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