Police in Northern Ireland suspect the Irish nationalist group New IRA was responsible for the attempted murder of a senior detective, who was shot dead in front of his son on Wednesday night in the town of ‘Omagh.
Chief Inspector John Caldwell was shot multiple times by two gunmen as he stowed footballs in his car after a youth training session, Deputy Chief Constable Mark McEwan said. The man remains hospitalized in critical condition.
The gunmen continued firing while the detective was on the ground, McEwan said. The two fired several shots and at least two other vehicles were hit in a crowded parking lot, where parents and children ran for protection, he added.
The suspects’ car was found burnt out on the outskirts of Omagh, the scene of the worst attack in Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’ (‘problems’ as the violent conflict in Northern Ireland is unofficially called), when nationalist militants killed 29 people. when a car bomb exploded in a busy shopping street four months after the 1998 peace accord.
“We are keeping an open mind, the investigation is multi-pronged. The primary target is violent republican dissidents and within them the new IRA,” McEwan told BBC Northern Ireland.
Although the peace deal has largely ended three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, police officers remain a sporadic target of militant, mainly Irish splinter groups opposed to British rule over the region.
The New IRA, a small militant nationalist group opposed to the peace accord, has previously attacked police and is responsible for the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in 2019.
The last time a police officer was shot dead in Northern Ireland was in 2017. Last year Britain lowered its terror threat level linked to Northern Ireland for the first time in addition of a decade.
The threat from insider groups has been downgraded from “serious” to “substantial”, according to an independent assessment by internal intelligence service MI5. Police then said operations against nationalist militants made attacks less likely.
Caldwell, who a BBC friend says is in his 40s, has been a senior detective for several years and has investigated numerous serious crimes and terrorist activities, said Police Federation of Northern Ireland chairman Liam Kelly .
Caldwell was no more threatened than any other officer, Kelly said, pointing to conversations he had after the attack.
“Sadly, this is a stark reminder to our colleagues that 25 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, policing in Northern Ireland remains a very dangerous profession and carries extreme risks,” said Kelly.
“Clearly these people investigated what John was doing and took advantage of him volunteering with young people and used this forum to try to murder him. This is absolutely outrageous.”