Child seat bullet hole shows how close 4-year-old boy came to dying in botched McDonald’s assassination bid

THIS is the bullet hole in a child's car seat that shows how close a tot came to dying during a botched gangland shooting.

Little Ryan Walsh, four, cheated death when a bullet became lodged in the booster seat he was sitting in outside McDonald’s earlier this month.

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He was with his dad James in a car park in Dublin when he was caught up in the attempted killing at around 6.15pm on April 8.

The masked assassin’s intended target — a notorious criminal with links to the jailed Irish mob boss Brian "King Rat" Rattigan — was also in the car park at the time.

The gunman sprayed the area with bullets as he tried to take out his rival — but instead hit the vehicle of the innocent family going to the Charlestown branch of the fast food chain to get their dinner.

The little boy came so close to death that a bullet became lodged in the car seat he was sitting in.

Gangland boss Brian Rattigan was jailed for 17 years back in 2013 for running a £800,000 (1million Euros) heroin dealing network from his prison cell. He had already been banged up in 2003 for possession of heroin.

Cops in Ireland have now renewed their appeal to find the masked man who pulled the trigger and are hoping to speak to witnesses or anyone with information on his car.

They said on the Irish TV channel RTE’s CrimeCall programme last night: “At the time of the shooting the car park was busy with customers from the supermarket and two fast food restaurant.

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"A silver Volkswagen Golf drove around the car park. A man armed with a firearm jumped out of the Golf and fired a number of shots.

“One of the bullets penetrated the side of a car as it was driving through the car park. The bullet travelled through the car and a child’s car seat where a four-year-old boy was sleeping at the time. Luckily the child was not injured."

Police said the car had the number plate 02MH7775 and had been bought using a fake name on April 4.