February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
And police are this week still investigating the close-range shooting of the beloved father of three.
Kelly’s concelebrated funeral Mass was held Saturday at St. Finnachta’s Church in Sixmilebridge.
According to a report in the Clare People newspaper, mourners saluted the popular local man with symbols of his lifelong interest and prowess in various sports.
These included a hurley, soccer ball, darts and a golf club.
Kelly, 43, was one of the most prominent hurlers in the New York area during the 1990s.
He was shot once in the back of the head after taking down Christmas lights on the evening of Sunday, Jan. 15.
His son Kevin had taken the lights into the building and Kelly was moving a ladder when he was gunned down.
The married father of three children was employed as the building superintendent at 3505 Bruckner Boulevard, an apartment building where the shooting took place.
The Kelly family also lived in the building.
An initial police statement pointed to the shooting as an act by “an unknown person for an unknown reason.”
Kelly was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center but was pronounced dead about an hour after the shooting, which occurred around 8 p.m.
The investigation into the shooting is centered at the 45th precinct.
In addition to his job as building superintendent, Kelly also worked as an electrician and on Friday nights as a bartender, most lately in Jimmy Ryan’s on Middletown Road in the Bronx.
Police are urging anyone with information to call (718) 822-5414. All calls will be treated as confidential.
Kelly is survived by his wife Ann and three children, one a high school student, the other two in grammar school.
Ettie O’Reilly, a sister of the murdered man living in Sixmilebridge, was reported in the Irish Independent as saying that her brother had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and that nobody could fathom as to why he had been shot.
O’Reilly said she was mystified as to why anyone would hurt her brother.
“We have every confidence that the Bronx police will find the person who shot John. We can’t say anymore as it is an ongoing investigation,” O’Reilly said.
Investigators have pledged to “vigorously” pursue the case but an NYPD spokeswoman told the Echo Tuesday that the investigation was still ongoing and no arrest, or arrests, had been made.