Very saddened to hear of the death of a young black man, George Nkencho, in a fatal police shooting near Dublin today. Thinking of his grieving family. There will be an investigation by the Garda Ombudsman, GSOC; an essential component of Ireland’s Article 2 ECHR obligations. 1/

In Ireland, it is thankfully very rare to have fatal force used by the Gardaí, or indeed for Gardaí to lose their lives in the line of duty. Unlike some neighbours, there is no long list of Strasbourg cases examining Ireland’s use of lethal force for Article 2 compliance. 2/

Unfortunately there has been much learning about fatal police shootings of black men in the UK (& US), given the number of deaths; including on issues concerning mental health & race. In UK,the indefatigable @DebatINQUEST @INQUEST_ORG has done vital work with bereaved families.3/

Today @drlucymichael referred to some of this learning in this superb thread, highlighting (without prejudging the investigation) key questions which will need to be addressed about George Nkencho’s death & the circumstances. Please do read Lucy’s important thread. 4/ https://twitter.com/drlucymichael/status/1344357453048274947

One quick point troubling me from the initial coverage; many of the reports on GSOC’s investigation refer to it needing to establish whether the Garda had an “honestly-held belief” about immediate risk to life, eg https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40198917.html. This is undoubtedly a key question - 5/

but there are many others,too. Hypothetically,it’s possible for an honestly-held belief to be the product of precisely the biases @drlucymichael refers to. An honest belief may be unreasonable:see recent UK case of W80 (officer who shot Jermaine Baker) https://www.inquest.org.uk/coa-jermaine-baker 6/

I flag this not because of any specifics about events in Clonee today,but because these issues should be considered in the investigation. There are many questions,concerns. I do not envy GSOC;this is a complex,highly charged task. And the world is watching. RIP #GeorgeNkencho. 7/