'Mistaken identity' shooting remains an open garda case

Inquest told man shot dead outside pub had just swapped coats

- SEAN MCCARTHAIGH

A MAN shot dead in a possible case of mistaken identity had swapped jackets with another person just before they left a pub, an inquest heard yesterday.

Dean Johnson, who was 21, was hit several times by two gunmen at Harelawn Green, Clondalkin, West Dublin, a short distance from his home shortly after midnight on August 24, 2013.

His mother Betty told Dublin District Coroner's Court she understood one of the people with her son on the night had swapped their coat in The Finches in Clondalkin.

Witness Joanna Murphy, who had been visiting her mother, told the inquest how she went outside after hearing noises which she initially thought were bangers and saw Mr Johnson being shot in the head.

While she was attending to the deceased, she said another male came up to her and had remarked that "the shots were for him".