Michael Sercan Daventry
25 May 2016•Update: 25 May 2016
LONDON
Police in Ireland were on alert Wednesday after a violent feud between two rival gangs in the capital Dublin claimed its fifth fatality.
Masked gunmen shot dead one more man from the Hutch family as he got into his car outside his Dublin home Tuesday morning.
He was the latest member of the Hutch family to be targeted in a feud with the rival Kinahan group.
Irish media reported the Kinahans were seeking retaliation for alleged plots to kill some of its members and that as many as 10 Hutch associates were at immediate risk of attack.
Tuesday’s murder was the fifth gang-related attack since last September, when suspected gang member Gary Hutch was killed in an attack in Spain.
That attack promoted masked men to storm a boxing weigh-in at a Dublin hotel in February, killing alleged gangster David Byrne. Another member of the Hutch family was shot dead just three days later.
The killings have put on pressure on the new Irish government, which only took office earlier this month.
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said the attacks were “a vicious, murderous” dispute between two families.
Addressing the parliament Tuesday, Kenny said: “I don’t think I can stop that. But I think, from the government’s point of view, we can provide the resources and the wherewithal that the Garda [police] commissioner needs to have her forces deal with this in the way they have to.”
But a body representing police officers accused the government of not providing the police with enough support.
The Association of Garda Sergeants dismissed Kenny’s comments as “rhetoric” and accused the government of lowering police morale by not addressing salary and recruitment issues, state broadcaster RTE reported Wednesday.
