'It was pure chaos' - Carlow shooting witness describes panic as gunshots rang out

An eyewitness has described the panic that set in among people at the Fairgreen Shopping Centre in Carlow Town amid an active shooter situation on Sunday.

One of our reporters from Carlow Live has spoken to a member of public, who wishes to remain anonymous, who was in the Fairgreen Shopping area while the events unfolded on that evening.

The incident occurred shortly after 6:15pm at the shopping centre when a young man armed with a gun fired a shot into the air before being confronted by armed gardaí. The man - named locally as 22-year-old Evan Fitzgerald - died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene.

The horror incident unfolded just as our eyewitness was leaving work and waiting for a lift home. They told us: “ It was around 6pm from what I can remember, shortly after I left work.  I was just at the taxi rank outside of Sports Direct when I first heard commotion.”

They added: “ I thought I might have caught a glimpse [of the shooter] during, but I couldn't be too sure. ” The witness was a mere few hundred metres at most away from the incident.

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They say people around the area were confused at what the first gun shot was and the general atmosphere at the time was "confusion."

"But after the second shot, that's when people started to suspect something and panic started to break out," they added.

" There was definitely a lot of panic. I don't think it's something people are used to in the area. But yeah, the main, main emotion was definitely panic and distress," they continued.

"There were people sprinting in all directions, people jumping into cars, grabbing pets, children, anything they could, and just getting out of the area as quick as possible. It was pure chaos,”

During the event, the witness describes that the emotions that they felt personally: “ Nervousness, a bit of panic as well. I think that was further amplified by the crowd's panic. But afterwards it definitely leaves an unsettling nervous feeling.”

Describing the feeling that has been left for not only people who were in the immediate vicinity of the incident but of the general population of Carlow, the witness says: "The fact that we're not used to any of that stuff or you wouldn't expect it, makes it a little bit worse.

“It was a big shock to everybody, I think. The best word to use is shell-shocked. I was shell-shocked personally, and I think a lot of the town would be in the same boat.

"You see a lot of this stuff happen, you know, in America or kind of more populated cities, Dublin even. But to see it in your own backyard was definitely an eye-opener."