The killing of Eric Hopkins

On 26 May of last year gardaí killed Eric Hopkins, a 24-year-old man from Summerhill, Dublin, father of a child. Eric Hopkins was one of three robbers who entered the post office in Lusk that morning. One of his accomplices, Colm Griffin, was armed and he too was shot dead.

The Garda has offered no public explanation for the killing of an unarmed man. No independent investigation of the killing of Eric Hopkins has been undertaken. No charges have been taken against any of the gardaí who may have been responsible for the killing and no explanation for that has been forthcoming either.

As is commonplace in such circumstances, gardaí have leaked versions of what happened to the embedded security and crime correspondents. These have included a claim that Eric Hopkins was armed with a sledge hammer – this is untrue, the third person involved was armed with the sledge hammer. It was claimed he lunged at the gardaí – even if this is true, how would that justify killing him?

Gardaí are entitled to use lethal force only if they have reason to believe their lives or the lives of someone else is in danger. Nothing that has emerged about this killing suggests that anybody's life was endangered by Eric Hopkins.

Some of the public response to this killing is that it is welcome because there is "one less scumbag on the streets". If the sanction for being what others characterise as a "scumbag" is death, without charge of conviction, we have reverted to a primitiveness that is menacing not just to the "scumbags" but to everyone.

In Northern Ireland there is an automatic requirement on the police ombudsman to examine killings by police officers, irrespective of the circumstances. Under the legislation establishing the Ombudsman Commission here, there is no such requirement or even authority – the Ombudsman Commission may investigate only on the basis of a complaint and even then there is doubt about who may complain. Anyway, the Ombudsman Commission will not function until the beginning of 2007.

Vincent Browne