MURDERED DEALER'S BROTHER SHOT IN ERROR LAST YEAR

DRUG dealer and addict Kevin Fennell, who was murdered on Tuesday, is
believed to have been the intended victim of a shooting last year.
Fennell's brother John is paralysed after being shot in what is
thought to have been a case of mistaken identity.

Gardai investigating last week's gangland-style hit are considering a
theory that Kevin Fennell's murder was related to his personal life
and not to money he owed other dealers.

Fennell, a 23-year-old heroin addict who dealt drugs locally to
finance his habit, was shot dead in Tallaght in the early hours of
Tuesday morning. He had a string of previous convictions, including
convictions for robbery and one for statutory rape in the early 1990s.
His girlfriend, a brother and two young children, a two-year-old and a
four-month-old baby, were all in the house when the killing took place.

Despite earlier reports that Fennell may have been killed because of
his drug dealing, investigation sources have now turned to the theory
that Fennell may have been shot for ``a more personal reason''.

A detective source said: ``We believe he owed a small amount of money,
possibly A3400 or A3500 to another dealer, but that is not a
significant amount in the drugs trade. We don't believe that somebody
went to such risky lengths over that amount of cash.''

The investigation team also believe that last week's hit, in which
Fennell was blasted twice in the chest with a sawn-off shotgun, was
``much more professional than a small-time job by some disgruntled,
petty criminal''. The cool actions of the two men who entered his
house, one of them calling out Fennell's name, suggest that they may
have been hired to do the hit.

Investigation sources said the burning of the Nissan Primera get-away
car indicates further that ``a lot of trouble was taken in this job''.