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During his four years in hiding in New York, Aaron Brady was tracked down and placed under surveillance by specialist officers.
Brady had fled Ireland just months after murdering Garda Detective Adrian Donohoe and was hiding in plain sight living in the Irish-American community in Woodlawn, New York.
By then, he was a suspect in the case and was to be sentenced separately in Dundalk Circuit Court for dangerously driving a stolen car in the city of Co Louth.
Having traveled to New York on a tourist visa, he eventually settled in Woodlawn, a community steeped in Irish culture.
Brady had previously played at a junior level for Crossmaglen Rangers and there was information that he was involved in the GAA in New York.
Undercover police officers followed up on this lead when contacted by Gardaí trying to locate Brady.
Detective Superintendent John O’Reilly and Detective Inspector Brian Mohan traveled from Dundalk to meet the undercover team.
“The garda gave me information, directions and some photographs,” said Detective Jimmy Walsh of the NYPD Undercover Unit.
Detective Walsh followed up on the information, but did not obtain a positive result from the addresses provided by gardaí.
“The police said he might be playing soccer in Gaelic Park, I went there in late July and was able to take pictures of him and I was able to confirm his identification through that,” Detective Walsh said.
“It was late July so it was a hot day. I paid the admission fee, sat in the stands with the fans. He had a camera with a very large zoom lens. From what I saw, he looked like a regular gamer. “he added.
Detective Walsh, who was an undercover officer for more than two decades, used his experience to follow Brady on the subway and find out where he was working.
“From Gaelic Park we were able to set up surveillance and find out where he really lived,” Detective Walsh said.
“We were able to establish a pattern in him and we were able to interact with him. We had seen him on the train and we were able to follow him to several different workplaces. He was working construction,” he added.
The undercover unit followed Brady from where he lived in Yonkers to Manhattan and Queens, where he was working on a large construction site, but Detective Walsh said the construction jobs lasted for short periods of time.
“Besides the train and his workplace, there were several pubs where we got to see him,” he said.
The surveillance team wanted to obtain a DNA sample, but noted that Brady appeared to be on top of forensics during the interactions under surveillance.
“He seemed to keep things close to the vest. He was friendly but brief when you brought him into the conversation. But actually, from what we saw, he never left his group of friends.” Detective Walsh said.
Detective Walsh said he spoke to Brady on several occasions, but that there were other people closer to him.
“On the train he would sleep a lot. Whenever he had water or a soft drink, he would take it with him and throw it home instead of throwing it in the garbage can at the train station,” he said. .
“That definitely seemed interesting to us because we were looking to try to get something from him and we couldn’t at the time,” he added.
Detective Walsh’s colleague, Detective Eddie González, was also undercover with the NYPD for more than 20 years.
One day, Detective González saw Brady at a street festival in Woodlawn while he was off duty.
“Jimmy had sent me pictures of Brady before. He said ‘watch him’ and that day I arrived very early in the morning,” Detective González said.
“I started seeing Brady setting up the inflatable balloons. You already know the kiddie balloons and they can play there. I kept looking at him and looking at him. Jimmy had informed me before that Brady used to work in construction or that kind of business,” he said. .
He wasn’t sure if it was Brady, but Detective Walsh confirmed his identity after he was sent a photograph.
Detective González continued to observe Brady for approximately four hours as he provided Detective Walsh with updates and photos.
Detective Walsh was at the scene of Brady’s arrest in Woodlawn in May 2017 around 5 a.m. to 5:30 a.m.
“He was in a car with someone else I believe from the Westchester district attorney’s office. The feds were in the lead, they mentioned that he might have left his house,” Detective Walsh said.
“We were parked at a stop sign. I looked, there was a black Audi and I saw a face that I was familiar with. It was Aaron Brady. So we followed him and they pulled him over. The federal marshals, I think, he pulled him out of the car and then off. who gave him a confirmatory identification was placed under arrest. ”
The investigation into the murder of Adrian Donohoe involved a gardaí liaison with the PSNI, the US Department of Homeland Security, and many police forces around the world, including the NYPD and its specialized undercover team.
Detectives Jimmy Walsh and Eddie Gonzalez are now retired from the force and both say their thoughts are with Adrian Donohoe’s family.
“As for Brady getting convicted, justice for the family, I don’t know that I get drowned sometimes when I think about it.
“You know, what happened, how it happened, that half second it took him to pull the trigger, what he was thinking, or wasn’t thinking, and how many lives he ruined when he did that,” said the detective. Walsh said.
“I still feel bad for the family that there are people who have not yet been arrested and I hope that justice is served.”
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