Time did not allow for negotiator at George Nkencho incident – inspector

There was no time to call a negotiator to the scene where George Nkencho was holding a knife, an inspector has said.

A garda dispatcher explained how she shared information that Mr Nkencho had mental health issues, while a second dispatcher in charge of the deployment of armed gardai said he did not see the mental health information.

Mr Nkencho, 27, died outside his home in west Dublin on December 30 2020 after being shot multiple times by members of a Garda armed support unit.

An inquest into his death, which began this week at Dublin District Coroner’s Court, heard from shop workers and customers who described seeing Mr Nkencho punch an assistant manager at a shop in Hartstown and members of the public who said they saw him holding a knife.

Sergeant Deirdre Dempsey told the court that she was a Garda dispatcher at the time, while retired dispatcher Kenneth Kennedy was tasked with deploying armed response units.

Ms Dempsey explained to the inquest how gardai were alerted to the incident in the shop.

She said she liaised with local gardai to locate the man so they could keep sight of his whereabouts.

She said she heard over the Garda radio that the man was known to Gardai and had mental health issues, but Mr Nkencho was not identified by name at the time by dispatchers or gardai.

“A garda member informed me (the) male was known to Gardai and had mental health issues,” Ms Dempsey said in her deposition read out to the inquest.

She said she then “typed it up” on the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system but did not repeat it over the Tetra radio as all gardai deployed to the scene would have been listening to garda say it over the channel.

She said at 12.36pm it was confirmed to the control centre that Mr Nkencho had been shot and was “gravely ill”.

Mr Kennedy said that he did not assist in the armed gardai’s tactical response, but part of his job was information gathering to inform their risk assessment at a scene.

Mr Kennedy said an armed response unit, with two armed officers, was initially sent to the scene, with a second unit of two armed officers also deployed.

Asked why four armed officers were sent to respond to “a pedestrian with a knife”, Mr Kennedy said “he was mobile”.

“If he went into a house you could have a hostage incident so it was best to send a second unit to be safe,” he said.

Mr Kennedy was also asked about an entry made on the CAD system by Ms Dempsey at 12.26pm that day, where she said the suspect had mental health problems, and was asked why his deposition was “entirely silent on that”.

“Because I didn’t see it, and I didn’t give it out,” he said.

He said he was typing “unit updated” when the comment came in but he did not see it.

He said if someone at the scene had requested a negotiator they would have been dispatched, adding that “no-one requested an on-scene commander”.

He was asked by the coroner, Dr Myra Cullinane: “Had you gathered there were mental health issues, you’d seen it on the screen?”

He said he had not seen it on the screen.

“So you did not know there was mental health issues?”

“No… but the units on the ground did, because they were (told over the Garda radio system).”

He said he also did not know at the time where Mr Nkencho lived or that he was standing in his front garden.

Mr Kennedy was told by the barrister for Mr Nkencho’s family that the last information he had was that Mr Nkencho was in an open space, in a grassy area, and in a public space.

“You only found out after the event that he was in this confined space in the front garden,” he was told by the barrister.

“I never knew about that,” Mr Kennedy said.

“I had no information that he was in a front garden.”

Inspector Gerard Doherty told the inquest he was the senior ranking officer at the control room that day.

“I was trusting the experience of the dispatchers, as that is their role, and I think for me to interject at any stage could be detrimental to the managing of the operation,” he said.

Counsel for Mr Nkencho’s family said: “Wasn’t this scene at Manorfields Drive crying out for an intermediary, male or female, who was unarmed or a trained negotiator?”

“Time was probably not allowing that,” Mr Doherty responded.

“It was unclear of where this individual was travelling to, the identity wasn’t known at that time, so it was constantly moving and evolving, so time was probably not permitted there to develop it down that way. That’s my understanding.”

“You make it sound like haste was the best policy, is that right?” the barrister said.

“That is not correct,” he said.