Killings in London hit 125 for year
THE wife and son of murder victim Jim Donegan have told how their world has fallen apart since his death.
Mr Donegan was shot dead as he sat in his car outside a west Belfast school last Tuesday.
He was waiting for his 13-yearold son at St Mary’s Grammar on the Glen Road.
The gunman approached his Porsche Panamera and shot him eight times.
Mr Donegan’s funeral takes place today, and ahead of it a series of tributes were placed in the family notices section of the Irish News.
Tributes were paid to him by his wife, children, father, siblings, extended family and friends.
A message from his wife Laura and son Max reads: “On Tuesday afternoon December 4 my whole world fell apart. You were taken from us in such a cruel and evil way. My heart aches for you babe, I have never known pain like it. No one will ever be able to take away our love and memories we shared.”
A message from his father Jim read: “Jim, where do I begin. All I know is I will always miss and long for you. My heart hurts and will never feel the same. There is no greater ache than my son, my eldest, going before me.”
The message from his uncle John and the McQuillan family reads: “I think of him living in
A 47-year-old man arrested on Tuesday in Turf Lodge in connection with the attack was later released unconditionally. It was the third arrest made by detectives. Police also stopped traffic and spoke with parents arriving to pick up children from schools in the area on the same day.
Mr Donegan’s Requiem Mass will take place today in St John the Evangelist Church, Belfast, at 10am followed by a service at Roselawn Crematorium at 1pm. THE number of homicides in London so far in 2018 is the highest in a calendar year this decade.
In the latest violent death in the capital, an 18-year-old man was stabbed to death in a fight in Alwold Crescent, Lee, south-east London, shortly before 10pm on Tuesday.
Police said they were called to “reports of armed youths in the street”. A second man, also 18, went to hospital with stab injuries but was later discharged.
Five people were arrested and taken to police stations in south London for questioning.
There have been 125 violent deaths in the capital so far this year, the largest number in a calendar year since 2009, when there were 131.
Just over a third of victims, 44, were aged 16 to 24, of whom 10 were shot, 32 were stabbed and one was killed in an attack involving a knife and gun. Twenty-five victims were aged 19 and under, six of whom were shot and 16 of whom were stabbed.