Priest hits out at ‘callous’ killers who shot Belfast father in broad daylight
A PRIEST has spoken out against the “callous” gunmen who murdered a father from west Belfast in broad daylight.
Warren Crossan (28), who had significant links to dissident republicans, was shot multiple times in St Katharine’s Road last Saturday afternoon.
Neighbours including children watched in horror as two masked gunmen chased him through a busy street before he was shot dead.
His father Tommy Crossan, who was a prominent dissident republican, was shot dead himself at a fuel depot in Belfast on Good Friday in 2014.
Warren Crossan’s funeral was held yesterday in St John the Evangelist Parish Church on the Falls Road, with burial afterwards in Milltown Cemetery.
Parish priest Martin Magill directly addressed the shocking nature of his death, and urged any witnesses to contact police.
He told family members attending the service that Mr Crossan had been “traumatised” by watching his father being gunned down in 2014.
“Now you, Warren’s family, have to deal with this traumatic situation as you’ve had to deal with Warren’s murder on Saturday afternoon,” he said
He described him as devoted to his mother, partner Georgia and his children Thomas and Jackson.
“On Saturday afternoon last, some of you, Warren’s family, as well as members of this parish community saw an evil deed but you also saw acts of kindness,” he said.
“The two gunmen who got up that morning with the intention of executing Warren, their deliberate callous way of gunning him down in broad daylight, in the presence of neighbours on St
Katharine’s Road including children who witnessed it, demonstrated the worst of what human beings can do.”
Calling on anyone with information to contact police, he also praised neighbours for their kindness at the scene of the shooting.
“The woman, the neighbour, who covered Warren with a blanket out of respect for his dead body,” he said.
“Another woman who covered his face with a headscarf, and another neighbour who stayed close to his body so that his family knew that he had someone beside him who knew him until his body was removed from the scene.”
Police have since said that they are ruling nothing out, after fears that a criminal gang from the Irish Republic travelled across the border to carry out the murder.
Detectives confirmed that Mr Crossan had been arrested and freed without charge in connection to the murder of the notorious Dublin gangster Robbie Lawlor (36) in Ardoyne two months ago.
It is believed Warren Crossan’s killers were acting in revenge for Lawlor’s death.
Lawlor was widely reported to have been involved in a feud with rival gangsters in Drogheda.
He was also the main suspect in the murder of Drogheda teenager Keane Mulready-woods in January.
The teenager was reported missing in January before his dismembered remains were found.
The PSNI said this week they wanted to avoid any “tit-fortat killings” after Mr Crossan’s death, and also noted that he had been on bail accused of importing £180,000 worth of cocaine.