'That bullet came within inches. I could actually hear the bullet going by my ear'
Deer Head, Him Griffin's Rampaged And Hunter Inches Missing Sergeant Past Fuelled Drug A Through Bullets Flashed Eamonn Town As By Drink
Bullets flashed past Sergeant Eamonn Griffin's head, missing him by inches as a drink- and drug-fuelled deer hunter rampaged through town.
Armed with a high-powered rifle, Stephen Dowling marched through Glenties, Co Donegal, “like a soldier” shooting at people, buildings and cars. Dowling had been on a hunting trip in the area before he turned the gun on people.
No one was killed in the incident in 2020 and Dowling was sentenced to eight years in prison. Sgt Griffin was involved in the successful mission to arrest Dowling that day.
He was honoured with the Excellence Award at the annual conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors in Westport, Co Mayo. “It means everything to me. To be honored by your own peers, it's a great honor,” he said.
Sgt Griffin said that he still thinks about the incident in 2020. “You think what could have happened. I could have lost my life. One of my colleagues could have lost their lives.
Dowling, from Carlow, was then aged 25. He was visiting Glenties with a cousin and uncle to shoot deer and used a licensed gun on his rampage.
After a day shooting, they went to local pubs and then returned to their bed and breakfast around midnight. But Dowling then changed back into his hunting clothes, retrieved his high-powered Tikka 3X rifle from his car and went on a rampage through the town.
He got into the car of local pizzeria worker, TJ Kalsi, waving his gun. He then got out but shot into the windscreen, narrowly missing Mr Kalsi’s head.
The nearest garda armed support unit was an hour away in Milford. Before that support could arrive, Sgt Griffin and colleagues strategised that one Garda car would approach Dowling from behind and another would lead him out of the town in a bid to guide him away from people.
Other gardaí were dispatched to divert traffic away from the town. A court previously heard how Dowling’s behaviour was like something from the “wild west”.
At one point, he fired off rounds as he crouched behind a pillar. One round hit the windscreen of a garda car and another hit the front grill narrowly missing gardaí.
“Of course you felt fear," Sgt Griffin said.
“For that night, my main objective was to apprehend this person, no matter what the cost because he was of severe danger to everybody.”
Waiting for the armed support unit that night was “extremely tense”, he said.
“You wanted them to be there beside you. But because you're living in a rural area, it's going to take time. In that period, my main objective was to have this fella cordoned off, so nobody else will get hurt.
“This fella had to be stopped. At all costs. It’s part instinctive, but it is training as well. That is what we are trained for and that is what we are sworn to do — we are sworn to protect.”