Chilling words of tragic father who was shot dead in Majorca after being mistaken for notorious Irish gangster
Trevor O'Neill was with his family on holidays when he was killed in the streets
THE man mistakenly gunned down in front of his wife and children while on holiday in Majorca has been named as Trevor O'Neill.
In a tragic twist, the father of three had told friends and family he was getting excited for summer with his family just a few months before he was shot four times in the back outside a Majorca holiday resort in a suspected gangland execution after being mistaken for an Irish gangster.
Initial fears rose that a notorious Dublin gang feud had been reignited on the Spanish island but The Sun since revealed the innocent victim had earlier been chatting to an associate of the Hutch mob by pure chance.
The respected Dublin City Council worker had been walking with his partner and three kids at Costa de la Calma, around 15 miles from the capital Palma, just after 9pm last night.
His family told The Sun: "He had nothing to do with the Hutches or the Kinahans."
A distraught family member said: "please, please let people know that he had nothing to do with the Hutches or the Kinahans or gangland or any of that.
"He was never in his life in trouble with Gardai. We can't bear to think that people would associate him with them."
She said: "This was mistaken identity, he was only over on a holiday with his three children. This is the result of this feud. This is what happens, innocent people get killed."
Trevor O'Neill had taken to Facebook in January, sharing his excitement for the upcoming year.
Sharing a sunny snap from the beach, he wrote: Can't wait for the summer again family and friends. Life is great."
The Sun can also reveal the family had been debating going to Turkey for their summer holiday but chose Spain as it was the safer option.
Discussing their plans on Facebook, Trevor said the Turkey trip would be cheaper but friends and family advised him to go Spain instead.
But Trevor's life was tragically cut short when he was mistaken for an associate of Gerry "The Monk" Hutch while on the summer holiday with his family.
O'Neill's children, who were next to their father when he was shot, were taken to a nearby restaurant after the hit.
The family was expecting to return home on Sunday, having arrived at the popular holiday island last weekend.
There were no shells collected at the scene despite witnesses claiming he was shot four times.
A source said: "It looks like this guy was totally innocent. He chatted for a minute to a Hutch associate, little realising who it was.
"Just the usual small talk conversation Irish people have when they met for the first time on holidays."
The shooting was initially being probed as a revenge killing and led to concerns it is related to the gangland feud between the Kinahan and Hutch crime clans.
The bloody rivalry has been behind bloodshed in Ireland and on Spain’s Costa del Sol.
But police now believe the victim was mistaken for an Irish gangster.
Tributes poured in for the father with friends remembering him as a "great family man."
One woman said: "Such a lovely fella he always made me laugh."
Another wrote: "Great family man loved by everyone in his community."
Another friend wrote: "I can't believe this this man a true gentleman in every respect of the word, a friend and as close to blood that someone could be to me, we grew up together were in and out of eachothers homes and treated them like our own, could be slane (sic), murdered in cold blood on holiday with his wife and kids, I just hope the scum that done it gets there (sic) reward, there is a fate worse than death, RIP brother xx"
Dublin City Council's Brendan Kenny paid tribute to O'Neill, saying: "The management and staff of Dublin City Council are shocked to hear of the tragic death of Trevor O'Neill in Majorca last night.
"Trevor was a hard working and dedicated employee of Dublin City Council.
"On behalf of the management team, city councillors and staff of Dublin City Council, I would like to offer my deepest condolences to Trevor's family and friends."
One local shop owner - who did not wish to be named - described how she held the victim's hand has he lay dying.
She said: “There was a large group of them, the man who was shot, his wife, four of their children, and other adults including a male friend and two other women.
“There must have been around eight to ten of them in all.
“They were heading from a nearby hotel to a square where everyone congregates at night for an evening meal and a drink.
“I saw the gunman walk past the shop and heard the shots seconds later before he ran back down the road past the shop towards the beach and a well-known beach bar at the bottom of the road.
“He had tracksuit bottoms on and a blue tracksuit top with the number 23 in white on the back and the hood on his tracksuit drawn up tightly round his face.
“It was pandemonium at first. People were screaming and running in all directions.
“The wife of the man that was shot had one of their children who must have been aged around seven in a pushchair that she was wheeling along when the victim was gunned down.
“He was walking slightly in front of them on his own.
“That child and another with her must have seen what had happened.
"Another two children were behind them and wouldn’t have seen it and the woman turned round and screamed at them as it happened and that gave them time to run for cover in a side street.
“I know that lady was married to the victim because when we ran out to tend to the injured man she kept on repeating the word ‘Wife, Wife.’
“We took her to one side and I got some water for her and held the man’s hand to try to encourage him to keep his eyes from closing while we waited for the ambulance to arrive.
“He couldn’t talk and his eyes started to close and go yellow and then white and his mouth changed colour."
Another local added: “The dead man used to holiday in the area regularly.
“People have said the gunman got into a car near the beach but he was on his own when he shot his victim. There were no accomplices with him at the time.”
One witness reported hearing the killer bragging in a nearby bar about the crime he was about to commit.
Police are said to have spoken to the key witness as they hunt the gunman and two suspected accomplices.
They escaped a police lockdown of the area following the shooting just after 9pm last night in Costa de la Calma, around 15 miles from the capital Palma.
An all-ports-alert remained in place this morning as murder squad detectives sought to stop the assassins fleeing the island.
A bar owner, who asked not to be named, said: “I heard three shots but there were apparently four and then saw a man with a blue hoodie pulled tight over his face run by.
"I didn’t realise at first they were gunshots — I thought it was kids playing with firecrackers.
“But then I heard people screaming and people came rushing into the bar to seek refuge. The victim is dead and still lying in a bodybag on the pavement near my bar. I don’t know who he is.”
The victim was with his family when he was shot, locals said.
A worker at a restaurant near the scene said: “There were around five or six children aged between eight and 15. The police said they were the victim’s relatives and asked us to look after them while they were with the woman they were questioning.”
The woman is believed to be the victim’s partner.
A Civil Guard spokesman said: “A man was shot in the back at around 9.05pm local time in a street in Costa de la Calma. Officers are still at the scene.
“The man or men responsible for shooting him fled.”
Roadblocks were set up in the area to try to catch the killers.
An all-ports-warning is also understood to have been issued to stop them leaving Majorca.
Spain and Ireland have been rocked in recent months by a series of tit-for-tat killings blamed on Dublin’s feuding mobs.
In February, gangster David Byrne was shot dead at Dublin’s Regency Hotel during a boxing weigh-in.
The 32-year-old victim was aligned to Christy Kinahan’s gang, nowadays said to be led by his son Daniel.
The Regency shooting was seen as retaliation by the Hutch gang for the assassination last September of Gary Hutch in Miraflores near Fuengirola.
Mob boss Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch’s brother Eddie was shot dead three days after the Regency attack in a feud which one major criminal has warned would only end when Daniel Kinahan — who until recently lived in Marbella — was killed.
Christy and Daniel are now said to have relocated to Dubai to escape the threats to their lives.
Since Eddie Hutch’s killing on February 8 at his Dublin city centre home, at least three murders here have been linked to the gangland feud.
Police overtime budget to combat the deadly feud between the Kinahan and Hutch mob was recently estimated to have risen to £77 million.
Costa de la Calma, in the southwest of Majorca, is near Santa Ponsa which is a popular Irish holiday resort.
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