Gunman fired 37 rounds in attempt at ‘death by cop’

A MAN who discharged 37 shotgun rounds in the direction of gardaí to provoke them into killing him has been jailed for six and a half years.

Patrick Kinch, 48, later told gardaí that he wanted to ‘go out in a blaze of glory’ but believed he would not go to heaven if he killed himself.

Garda Rory Maher told the court that in the early hours of December 20, 2015, Natasha Donnelly, Kinch’s partner at the time, witnessed him behaving erratically in the house they shared on Deerpark Square in Tallaght, Dublin.

He said Ms Donnelly thought Kinch had been drinking and had taken Valium. She became afraid and fled the house along with her children. Ms Donnelly drove to Tallaght Garda station and alerted gardaí.

Officers went to the house and spoke with Kinch while he leaned out of an upstairs window. He said he would be down shortly. Garda Maher said that two shots were fired from the window at 5am. Further shots were fired over the next several hours while Kinch demanded that the gardaí shoot him.

‘Death is natural’ and ‘we all have to die, come on, take a head shot’ were among the things Kinch shouted at gardaí, according to Garda Maher.

Kinch eventually threw the unloaded shotgun out of the window and was arrested shortly afterwards, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.

Gareth Baker BL, prosecuting, said Kinch had 33 previous convictions including assault causing harm, threats to kill, robbery, larceny and possession of knives.

Kinch, of Deerpark Square, Tallaght, pleaded guilty to endangering gardaí by firing at them with a stolen sawn-off shotgun during a siege that lasted almost 15 hours. He also admitted damaging the house where the siege took place and to causing more than €7,000 worth of damage to a Garda vehicle.

Judge Martin Nolan suspended the final three and a half years of a ten-year sentence.