[caption id="attachment_70866" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Tom Walsh."]
Hundreds gathered in a Florida church on Holy Thursday to mourn murdered Tipperary man Tom Walsh. Walsh, 43, from Templemore, died after being shot in what appears to have been a robbery. A reported $3000 was stolen from the Mainstreet Grill in DeLand, near Daytona Beach, where Walsh had worked as a manager.
The shooting occurred at closing time on Saturday night March 31. Walsh was the only employee left on the premises.
Walsh had worked at the popular restaurant since it opened for business 16 years ago. He also had his own computer business and the restaurant work was lately a sideline.
"All the indicators were there that it could be a robbery. That's what we're starting with," Assistant Police Chief Randel Henderson told the Daytona Beach News Journal shortly after the shooting. As of presstime Tuesday, police had yet to make an arrest.
The funeral service was held at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Deland.
At the memorial service, according to the News Journal, the Rev. Tom Connery said Walsh's death had affected not only his family in Ireland but the community in DeLand. The priest expressed sorrow over the violent crime.
"We apologize to his mother, Betty, who sent her son to this country to work," Connery said to a gathering of about 250 people. "And now we send him back to her in this fashion."
Walsh is survived by his daughter. His body was flown back to Ireland for burial.
