An innocent father-of-four who was callously gunned down in his home died five years later from complications as a result of gunshot wounds, an inquest into his death heard.
Patrick ‘Padzer’ Sullivan (52), was shot at point-blank range by a masked man at his home in Rowlagh Park, Clondalkin on April 13, 2013. The gunman brushed Mr Sullivan’s wife Bernadette aside before opening fire with a sawn-off shotgun.
Mr Sullivan, who “didn’t have an enemy in the world,” suffered catastrophic brain injuries from which he never recovered. He spent the next five years in hospital in long term care with incurable injuries until his death in 2018. Gardaí are convinced that the shooting on April 13, 2013, was a case of mistaken identity.
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At the inquest into his death yesterday at Richmond Centre in Dublin, Mr Sullivan’s wife Bernadette recalled the night of the shooting. In her deposition, Bernadette said she was sitting on the couch with ‘Padzer’ when she heard a loud knock on the door.
When she answered the door she saw a man wearing a balaclava and “thought it was a joke”. She said: “I went to take the balaclava off him but he shouted ‘Where is he?’ I said no-one is here and he pushed past me and pointed the gun at Padzer and shot him.”
Bernadette said she heard Patrick scream and the gunman pointed the gun at her and after she begged him not to shoot her he ran from the house and got into the passenger side of a black car with yellow registration plates. Bernadette said she ran into a neighbour’s house for help.
A neighbour, Patrick Casserly, now deceased, gave a deposition prior to his death, which was read out in court that he heard two bangs and heard a car speed away. He said in his statement Bernadette was banging on his door, screaming ‘They shot Patrick, please help him.’
Mr Casserly said he went into the kitchen of Sullivan’s home and saw Patrick ‘on his back, trying to mumble something surrounded by a lot of blood.’ He said he tried to comfort Patrick and held a towel to try and compress the wound prior to the arrival of emergency services and gardai. Garda Michael Deegan of Ronanstown Garda Station, who was the first responder at the scene, said Patrick had ‘a large wound to the left shoulder, throat and neck area.’
Mr Sullivan was removed to Tallaght Hospital by ambulance at 7.18pm barely conscious and was unable to speak, Gda Deegan said in his deposition. Dr Seamus O’Dea, a senior medic at Cherry Hospital, where Mr Sullivan was moved to, had a profound brain injury, was unable to speak and was fed through a tube as a result of the gunshot wounds.
“He suffered respiratory arrest shortly after being admitted to Tallaght Hospital which resulted in brain damage, infections and seizures,” Dr O’Dea said in his evidence. In 2017 Mr Sullivan became stable and was able to get home for visits for several hours at a time.
However, his condition deteriorated gradually as a result of infections. On June 24, 2018 he developed a chest infection and became acutely unwell and passed away at 4.45am on June 26, 2018. Former State pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy gave evidence via videolink of the post-mortem she carried out on Mr Sullivan’s remains.
She concluded that Mr Sullivan “was a victim of a shooting who had extensive injuries to his left jaw, shoulder and neck.”
“He suffered respiratory arrest because of a loss of blood at the time of the shooting which resulted in a lack of oxygen to his brain. He was not expected to recover from the brain injury,” said Prof Cassidy.
She concluded Mr Sullivan died as a result of complications after the shotgun injuries that “he could not recover from.”
“He was a healthy individual prior to this incident,” Dr Cassidy said.
The Coroner’s Court heard the shooting of Mr Sullivan is still an open investigation by gardai. A total of 133 statements were taken and a possible match to the getaway car was located burnt out a short distance away.
“He was an honest, decent, law abiding citizen who had absolutely no involvement in crime,” Inspector Niamh Molloy told the court. “It was a case of mistaken identity and the shooter had the wrong address completely. The investigation is ongoing.”
The jury of four women and two men returned a verdict of unlawful killing by a person unknown and that Mr Sullivan died as a result of medical complications from a gunshot
in a tragic case of mistaken identity. Coroner Dr Crona Gallagher offered her sympathy to the family of Mr Sullivan and said
“Ten years after it is so shocking to even contemplate what Patrick went through and what you as a family have been going through.”
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