Off-licence employee feared for his life when George Nkencho pulled out a knife
A man put staff of a supermarket in fear of their lives after threatening them with a knife, shortly before he was fatally shot by gardaí five years ago, an inquest heard yesterday.
A sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court heard evidence from eyewitnesses that George Nkencho carried out an unprovoked assault on the assistant manager of the Eurospar outlet in Hartstown Shopping Centre around midday on December 30, 2020.
He then produced a knife in front of staff and customers. Mr Nkencho, 27, suffered fatal gunshot wounds after a stand-off developed between himself and members of the Garda Armed Support Unit (GASU) outside his family home at Manorfields Drive, Clonee, Co. Dublin.
George Nkencho. Pic: Social Media Collect
The situation arose after the incident at the Eurospar, which was 1.2km away from his home. The young man, the eldest of five siblings, whose family originally came from Nigeria, was pronounced dead that day at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown.
In a written deposition, the store’s assistant manager, Wayne Swords, said Mr Nkencho had come up behind him while he was talking to another staff member and struck him in the face. Mr Swords said he felt instant pain to his nose which started to bleed as well as feeling his eyes blur.
‘I was caught completely by surprise,’ he recalled. He began to stumble when a second punch from the deceased grazed his face. Mr Swords then recounted how his attacker pulled a 6-7in knife with a serrated edge from a pocket.
Dublin District Coroner’s Court. Pic: Colin Keegan/Collins, Dublin.
Mr Swords, who suffered a broken nose and tooth, said he had never seen such anger in a person in 13 years working in retail.
A store supervisor who had been talking to Mr Swords, Erinda Cerepi, said she was surprised as Mr Nkencho looked calm when he entered the shop. Ms Cerepi said she pleaded with Mr Nkencho to go away before calling for help after seeing him take a knife out of his pocket.
The inquest heard Mr Nkencho left the store before returning and speaking to a customer who seemed to know him. He then stood at a queue for the post office in the store for a short period before leaving again.
George Nkencho’s mother, Blessing. Pic: Colin Keegan/Collins, Dublin.
Another staff member who witnessed the assault, Margaret Armstrong, gave evidence that Mr Nkencho had punched Mr Swords full in the face.
‘He was hitting Wayne so hard, you could nearly feel it,’ she recalled.
The store’s inwards goods manager, Mark Giles, said he dialled 999 because he believed someone had been stabbed. He said Mr Nkencho appeared ‘incoherent but still in control’, although he described him in the emergency call as ‘a crazy headcase’.
George Nkencho’s sisters, Grateful (right) and Gloria. Pic: Colin Keegan, Collins, Dublin.
A checkout operator, Maria Beggs, said she saw the assailant produce what she thought was a screwdriver after hearing screams for help. Ms Beggs told the inquest Mr Nkencho’s eyes were glazed over and he looked ‘under the influence of something’.
A customer, John O’Connor, gave evidence of seeing Mr Nkencho, who was ‘very, very hyper’, take a knife out of his pocket.
In earlier evidence, Mr Nkencho’s mother told the inquest there was ‘nothing out of the ordinary’ about his behaviour in the weeks before the incident.
Blessing Nkencho said there were no issues with her son’s mental health at the time. She described how he loved football and had worked as a coach in Scotland and Ireland.
However, she claimed he was affected mentally by a car accident in 2014, when he was in a vehicle driven by a friend, which had made him more isolated and solitary in his behaviour.
Ms Nkencho acknowledged that she had also been concerned after the accident that he had become paranoid and would be hallucinating. She said her family were ‘waiting for something to happen’ after their doctor had written to a hospital about him. ‘
Commenting on the impact of her son’s death, Ms Nkencho said: ‘Since George left, my life has never been the same. I have depression, and I can’t sleep.’
The inquest is expected to continue for three weeks.
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