‘David’s death still makes me so angry, you never get over it’
A RETIRED PSNI inspector has described the devastation caused by the murder of his brother, blown up by an IRA booby-trap bomb while working as a detective in Londonderry.
David Reeves was just 24 when he died instantly in the blast as he investigated a haul of suspected stolen televisions found in a shed in Shantallow in Derry 36 years ago.
His brother Colin (50) said the family never recovered from the trauma.
Speaking out to coincide with National Police Memorial Day yesterday, Colin said his mother Ann, who died of cancer in 1994 when she was just 53, was heartbroken by the loss of her eldest child.
“I was only 13 when David died and I remember I would be woken up in the middle of the night by the noise of her crying,” he said. “I’d go downstairs and she would be on her hands and knees on the kitchen floor with the grief of it and she was hysterical, it was shocking seeing your mother like that.
“My dad worked as an air traffic controller and he worked night shifts and also worked in England and Scotland for a while, but mum refused to let the family move because David was here.
“Mum would get herself in a terrible state at night and I remember getting her upstairs and putting her to bed; it was horrific.”
Colin said he can recall the moment he learned of his brother’s tragic death “like it was yesterday”.
He was at school when he was summoned to see the principal.
“I’ll never forget my teacher’s face. She was called out first and when she came back in, just the look on her face and she had tears in her eyes and then she told me to go to the headmaster’s office,” he said.
“When I walked in there was a man in a long raincoat and he told me my parents wanted me home and he was there to take me.
“I knew something had happened to David, but I didn’t ask.
“Before David was killed I used to go up and stay with him and we would play snooker and golf and do things brothers would do and he used to say to me that he’d lost colleagues and he had a feeling that something would happen to him too.
“On the way home that morning I was sat in the car with this man and we talked about football, but inside I was praying to God that David had just been hurt.”
However, his world crumbled when he arrived at the family home in Portstewart.
His mum ran outside and shouted: “David is dead, they’ve killed him.”
Colin said: “I’ll never forget those words.”
Despite what happened to David, Colin was determined to follow his dream and become a police officer himself.
However, within a few years