'Bullet came within inches': Donegal sergeant faced down cocaine-fuelled gunman

A Donegal Garda Sergeant has recalled how a bullet fired by a cocaine-fuelled gunman in Glenties came 'within inches' of hitting him.

Sergeant Eamon Griffin, who was one of four gardai to confront crazed Stephen Dowling in February 2020, was this week presented with a policing excellence award by the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) at its annual conference in Westport.

Gardai came under fire from drug and drink-fuelled Dowling – who is now serving an eight-year prison sentence - on Mill Road, Glenties.

Dowling was carrying a high-powered .256 remington calibre t3x bolt-action rifle and discharged several shots.

Dowling fired shots through the window of a passing car on the town’s Main Street, shot four bullets through windows of two houses at Church Road and caused damage to the wall of another house on Church Street which he also shot at.

“I could see him aiming at me before he fired the gun,” Sergeant Griffin recalled.

“When he fired the gun, I could see the flash from the rifle. I didn’t actually believe he was going to shoot at me at that stage.

“You don’t believe that somebody’s going to shoot you. That bullet came within inches. I could actually hear the bullet going by my ear.”

In February 2022 at Letterkenny Circuit Court, Dowling, of Burren Road in Carlow, was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to ten charges in relation to the night of terror.

Sergeant Griffin, who has been in the force for 40 years, including 18 years in border stations and also for a time in Dublin city centre, told the court that he had ‘never witnessed such a terrible act’.

Last summer, Sergeant Griffin along with colleagues Detective Garda Darren Carter, Detective Garda Enda Jennings and Garda Louis Browne received a Silver Scott Medal.

This week, the AGSI honoured Sergeant Griffin.

He said: “For that night, my main objective was to apprehend this person, no matter what the cost, because he was a severe danger to everybody.

“Of course you think what could have happened. Lots of things could have happened. I could have lost my life. One of my colleagues could have lost their lives.”