Video of ‘stand-off’ between George Nkencho and armed gardai shown at inquest

A video of a “stand-off” between George Nkencho and armed gardai was shown at an inquest into his death.

The inquest was told that five gunshots can be heard on the recording and multiple garda members are visible outside the house.

The footage was captured by a man on his phone as he walked his dog and was described by a barrister for the Nkencho family as the “only footage of that quality” that exist of the incident.

Mr Nkencho, 27, died outside his home in west Dublin in December 2020 after being shot multiple times by the Garda armed support unit.

The incident was the subject of an independent criminal investigation by the then Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC), now Fiosru, which concluded in June 2023 with the submission of an investigative file to the director of public prosecutions.

A decision was made not to pursue any criminal prosecution in relation to the shooting.

An inquest into his death began this week at Dublin District Coroner’s Court.

The inquest has heard from shop workers and customers who described seeing Mr Nkencho punch an assistant manager at a Eurospar in Hartstown, and members of the public who said they saw him holding a knife, as well as Garda dispatchers who described how units were deployed to the scene.

On the fourth day of the inquest, two local men and a postman describe what they saw of an incident involving Mr Nkencho and several gardai.

The witnesses said they heard gardai tell Mr Nkencho to “drop the knife” constantly during the fast-moving situation, while the postman said Mr Nkencho was “in clear distress”.

Local man Alan O’Reilly was walking his German shepherd dog Chase when he noticed armed gardai arrive at Manorfields Drive, where Mr Nkencho lived.

He said he was standing in the park as he watched gardai and a man in bright blue top standing in a front garden.

“There appeared to be a stand-off,” he said in his deposition.

He described Mr Nkencho as standing in the garden and what he thought was a garda pointing a gun at the man.

Mr O’Reilly said he did not know Mr Nkencho before the incident.

He said he then took his phone out and started recording the incident on his phone and said he saw the man swing something towards the gardai, and then he heard a series of shots.

The witness said five shots can be heard in the video he took, four in close succession and a fifth after a “longer interval”.

Asked why he started recording, he said: “I don’t know, to be honest.”

He stopped the video recording after the last shot and uploaded it to Snapchat and sent it to his girlfriend.

Mr O’Reilly said he did not know that they had fired shots at the man and had thought they fired the shots into the air.

He said his girlfriend rang him and told him to delete the video off his Snapchat, which he did.

Mr O’Reilly said he saw one man, who he assumed was Mr Nkencho’s brother, shouting “they shot George, they shot George”.

Barristers Eanna Molloy, on behalf of the Nkencho family and Ronan Kennedy, for An Garda Siochana, both thanked Mr O’Reilly for retaining the footage.

Mr Molloy said the Nkencho family were grateful to him for keeping the footage and said it appeared to be the “only footage of that quality that exists of these very distressing incidents”.

Mr Kennedy said that while five gunshot-sounds are in the clip, he said the evidence will be that there were six shots fired at the incident.

“That would mean that the clip doesn’t capture the first shot,” he said.

“So that would mean, in fact, that quite a lot of things may have happened before you started filming.”

Mr O’Reilly agreed with these assertions.

Mr Kennedy said Mr Nkencho appeared “very close” to the member of the Armed Response Unit who “seems to be moving out of the way”, to which Mr O’Reilly agreed was the case.

Plasterer Ray Dunne was walking his dog Daisy when he encountered Mr O’Reilly in the park and they saw Mr Nkencho walking nearby, with gardai following him and ahead of him.

He said that he heard gardai say “stop” and “drop the knife” several times before Mr Nkencho entered the driveway of the home on Manorfields Drive.

The witness said there were around six to 10 gardai “closing in on him” and said there was a lot of shouting of “drop the knife”.

Mr Dunne said he saw gardai taser the man and said he knew it was a taser because he heard a “charge or a click”.

He said “as quick as he hit it (Mr Nkencho hit the ground), he was kind of back up again” and said he swung again at an armed garda.

“I hear more shouts of ‘drop the knife’, they were constantly saying it, maybe 10 to 15 times at least,” he said in his deposition.

He said in his deposition that Mr Nkencho headed towards the door of the house and there were two shots fired, after which “George turned and made his way back to the guard that fired the shots like as if he was going to attack him”.

“The guard with the gun jumped backwards away from the chap with the knife, back towards the bush/ hedge behind him,” he said.

Mr Dunne told the inquest: “He swiped overhand right, and the guard just shot – bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.”

He said the “whole incident all happened in a matter of 30-35 seconds” and said he initially thought that they were rubber bullets.

“The guard’s back was to the hedge, and George is going to swing at him. So, the guards kind of backed up against the hedge,” Mr Dunne said.

“The guard really has nowhere else to go at that stage,” barrister for the gardai Mr Kennedy said.

“Not really, no,” Mr Dunne said.

Postman Derek Keenan said he had delivered a package to the Nkencho home that day.

He said he heard commotion around the corner and saw Mr Nkencho being followed by several gardai, one of whom was holding a gun.

Mr Keenan said one member of the Armed Support Unit had a gun raised and the other member was interacting with Mr Nkencho.

He said when they got to the Nkencho home, a bush at the house partially obstructed his view of the garden so he had a “better view of guards than I did of George”.

The postman described George’s movements as erratic: “They were from side to side, sometimes turning his back to the guards, sometimes moving forward. He looked me as a man who was in clear distress.”

Mr Keenan said he did see a taser being used on Mr Nkencho, where it hit him in the midriff area, and pepper spray being used.

“I believe after the second taser was deployed, and George momentarily hit the ground, I think one of the armed response unit was low down on the ground near George, and I think he was trying to spray something. That’s my recollection.”

He said he heard shots fired and afterwards “there was silence initially, and then what had been such a chaotic and frantic scene, all of a sudden there was no noise”.

“I did recall hearing some noise from the house and shouting,” Mr Keenan told the inquest.

“One of the guards had asked me about an ambulance and what the address was, and I gave them the address, and then I left the scene.

“I was conscious that something terrible had happened to someone. I didn’t want to be another person gawking unnecessarily.”

He said he made a statement half an hour after the event, at the scene in his van, and later contacted GSOC which took his account of events.

He said he did not mention pepper spray in the statement he gave.

“The statement that I gave to the guards at the time was taken probably 25 minutes after the event.

“Reading back… some of the aspects of it weren’t as clear as I had hoped it would be, and some of the things actually came back to me in the period after that, but I was never followed up with an interview.”

The inquest continues on Friday afternoon.