A drive-by paintball shooter from Dundee has been jailed.
Kevin O’Donnell, 31, was found guilty of two assaults and a charge of culpable and reckless conduct after the shooting spree in the city.
From a moving car, he repeatedly fired a paintball gun on Clepington Road, striking and injuring a 14-year-old boy.
O’Donnell also struck an adult male from within the vehicle on the same street during his rampage on May 8 2021.
As the vehicle moved on to Hilltown, he fired the paintball gun at a moving car being driven by a woman he was banned from seeing through a court-imposed non-harassment order.
‘Utter disregard for the consequences’
After a trial at Dundee Sheriff Court, a majority of jurors convicted O’Donnell of both Clepington Road assaults.
He was unanimously found guilty of spraying paintballs at the car being driven by the woman, showing “an utter disregard for the consequences.”
The majority of jurors found a further allegation O’Donnell fired a paintball gun at a man on Brook Street that day to be not proven.
O’Donnell was on bail at the time.
During the trial, two other men were acquitted of involvement in the offending.
Kieren McAnearney, 29 and Reece Wallace, 20, had been accused of the same assaults but midway through the trial, there were found to be no cases to answer in respect of each.
All three men were also cleared over allegations that from a flat window in Stirling Street the same day, they repeatedly fired a paintball gun at a children’s playpark, striking a male on the body.
However, it was accepted when police raided the flat at 10am the next day, they found a paintball gun in a rucksack behind a couch in the living room.
‘Propensity for violence’
Following the verdict, fiscal depute Lee Corr explained O’Donnell has been remanded since September 20, when he appeared from custody on a warrant issued for failing to appear at an earlier trial.
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael imposed 30 months imprisonment, backdated to the first date of remand.
He noted O’Donnell has a “propensity for violence and possessing and using weapons.”
The sheriff said: “He’s got several convictions at sheriff and jury level – possession of a weapon, violence, theft by housebreaking, dangerous driving.
“It’s a serious offence and there’s a high element of risk and danger attached to them.”
His solicitor Jane Caird said: “He’s still a fairly young man.
“He had a very bad upbringing where he was in and out of care his entire life.
“He has tragic family circumstances. He is one of five siblings, two of them have passed away.”
Machete and domestic abuse
The offence is not the first time O’Donnell has been convicted by jurors of arming himself in a moving vehicle.
Last summer, a jury in Forfar convicted him of possessing a machete while he was the passenger in a vehicle being pursued by police.
In April 2021, he was convicted of domestic abuse offences, repeatedly abusing and attacking his partner during and after her pregnancy.
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