The jury in the trial of a man accused of the murder of Colm Horkan in Roscommon two years ago has heard how a number of shots fired on the night he was killed struck several surrounding buildings.
The Detective Garda was shot a total of 11 times on the night of June 17th 2020
Daniel Considine has the details
Stephen Silver of Foxford in Mayo denies the capital murder of Detective Garda Colm Horkan, but has pleaded guilty to manslaughter due to diminished responsibility. Detective Sergeant David O'Leary, a Garda ballistics expert gave evidence from the examination of the pistol, casings and bullets found at the scene of the shooting and confirmed that the weapon's full magazine of 15 rounds had been discharged in the incident. Following examination of the scene by Garda forensic experts, five bullet strike marks were recorded in the area of Barrack Street and St. Patrick's Street. These included a shot through the window of Gannon's Travel agency, a strike on the passenger wheel of Colm Horkan's unmarked police car, a possible deflection from a stop sign, hitting the second story of the AIB bank, and a shot passing through a metal gate on Barrack street that struck a wheelie bin.
Doctor Greg Kelly also gave evidence. He was woken by Gardaí at his home and asked to examine Stephen Silver, who was then in custody at the station. In his evidence to the Court, he said Silver was 'talk, talk, talk' and while making sense, 'he wasn't coming across as normal'. Doctor Kelly stated that the accused had identified himself as Bi-polar and had requested the doctor to give him Valium, which the local GP did not have access to at the time. While discussing his medical needs, Doctor Kelly said the defendant told him he had been ok up until covid, describing the then 6 months of the pandemic as having caused everything to go wrong with his mental health.
The Doctor prescribed an anti-psychotic for Mr Silver to take, who then refused it, saying the water he'd been given by Gardaí was poison.
The trial will re-commence tomorrow morning
