"I never knew the meaning of the word terrified until this afternoon."
That's what BBC Northern Ireland sports journalist Kevin McAnena told Brian Dobson on RTÉ last night during his first-hand account of Friday afternoon's shooting at the Regency Airport Hotel. The incident took place at a weigh-in for a Clash Of The Clans fight night at the National Boxing Arena.
One man, David Byrne, a known criminal from Crumlin, is dead and two more are seriously injured.
McAnena, who was at the hotel for the weigh-in, works for BBC Radio Foyle.
Thanks for the tweets and other messages. I'm ok but unfortunately not everyone was as lucky.
— Kevin McAnena (@KevinMcAnena) February 5, 2016
McAnena told Dobson of witnessing David Byrne being shot six feet away from him and how he then jumped the receptionist's desk only to have a gun pointed directly at him.
I was just on my way out of the function room that the weigh-in was in. I was walking through the coridoor and I had just got into the lobby; people were filing out.
I noticed panic, people had started running and shoving and pushing. I didn't know what was going on, I thought maybe a fist fight had broken out behind them. I actually looked at the receptionist and I asked 'What's going on?'
Next thing, just on the steps outside, I heard two gunshots, two really loud bangs. Two men came in holding AK-47 rifles. They were dressed in Garda uniforms. One of them ran ahead and by this point, most people had ran out. I almost kind of froze and one other guy ran across the middle of the lobby and one of the guys with the guns turned and shot him in the lower leg and he went down. He was possibly just six feet from me. That's the guy [David Byrne] who has now died.
At that point, I jumped over the receptionist's desk and got on the ground. I started shouting 'Don't shoot, don't shoot' because I could hear more gunfire from the other side.
At that point, the gunman leaned over the receptionist's desk and looked down at me, pointing the gun down at me at this point. I was still shouting 'Don't shoot'. He said something, but I can't recall now, and he left.
That was the end of the episode really. I didn't hear anymore gunfire after that as far as I am aware.
At Dobson's behest, McAnena further expanded on 'looing down the barrel' of the gunman's weapon.
He's holding the gun down at me and I'm looking down the barrel of the gun. At this point, I think I'm going to die. I never knew the meaning of the word terrified until this afternoon. I just said 'Don't shoot, don't shoot'. I think I actually said 'I'm innocent' in the middle of this, he left then.
I stayed hidden down there for a minute or so before I scuttled off into the backroom.
