DUBLIN (AP) - Ireland's justice minister urged gang members to seek police protection Tuesday after gunmen shot to death the brother of a Dublin crime kingpin in apparent retaliation for last week's attack on a boxing weigh-in ceremony.
Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald spoke hours after the most brazen assault yet on the authority of Gerry "The Monk" Hutch, the Dublin crime figure behind many of Ireland's most daring bank heists. His faction has been blamed for Friday's attack on the hotel boxing event, where a henchman from a rival gang led by Spain-based Christy Kinahan was targeted and killed.
In apparent retaliation, gunmen on Monday night broke into the Dublin home of Hutch's brother Eddie and fatally shot the 59-year-old several times in the hallway. Police found the attackers' getaway car abandoned about a mile (2 kilometers) away with balaclava masks and a can of fuel inside, a sign that the attackers didn't have time to torch the car and destroy forensic evidence.
Fitzgerald said police were trying to stake out the residences of the most likely targets in Dublin's deepening gangland feud and running road checkpoints to make it harder for killers to operate. But she said gang associates who feared they might be targeted next should tell police - called the "gardai" in Ireland - directly.
"Members of gangs who have fears for their safety should come forward to the gardai," she said before meeting the police commander, Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan.