Families evacuated from store stumble upon bloody scene
THE shopping centre car park was full to overflowing on a busy bank holiday weekend when the killers struck.
North Down MLA Alan Chambers arrived at the scene just minutes after Colin Horner had been shot.
The Ulster Unionist — who lives not far from the murder scene — said the shopping centre was crowded with cars and shoppers.
“I came within 30 metres of where the poor man was lying on the ground,” he said.
“His car door was lying open. He was lying on the ground.
“There were about six paramedics and three ambulances there at this point.”
Police screened off the victim using wooden fence panels from a nearby Homebase store.
“The medics were taking it in turn to work on the victim, giving him vigorous CPR, working very, very hard,” he continued. “There was also a nurse there giving him fluids. They worked on him for about 45 minutes.
“Then they moved him onto a trolley to transfer him into an ambulance. They worked on him pretty feverishly on the trolley, doing that for about 10 minutes.
“Then they transferred him into the ambulance. Ten minutes later, it left.”
The MLA said there did not appear to be any great urgency evident when the ambulance left the car park. “At that point, it didn’t look good,” he said. Police later confirmed the victim had died.
Mr Chambers said the shooting happened at a drop off/pick up point close to the front door of the Sainsbury’s store.
The shooting was just a grass verge away from a public road — and the shots were fired toward that road. The bullets could have hit anyone,” he explained.
“The place was buzzing with cars and people. In that sense, the shooting was totally indiscriminate.” Some shoppers were
upset that they had been evacuated from Sainsbury’s into the car park where the murder had happened.
Lindzi Ellis wrote on Facebook: “I got there and saw a woman giving a man chest compressions, then they evacuated shops and everyone and kids (were) all standing panicking in car park, then ambulances and police arrived.
“There were people standing about with their kids watching him get CPR and people with bloody hands and they wouldn’t let anyone back in the shop.”