Barbaric ‘New IRA’ murders journalist, 29
THE murder of a journalist covering riots in Northern Ireland was blamed last night on the New IRA.
Lyra McKee, 29, was behind a police patrol when she was hit in the head by a stray bullet fired after a mob launched fireworks and petrol bombs in Londonderry on Thursday night.
Officers had been raiding homes searching for weapons, explosives and paramilitary uniforms in an attempt to disrupt a possible plot to murder police, planned to coincide with the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising this weekend.
Political leaders called for calm last night as police described the murder as a ‘terrorist incident’ carried out by the New IRA. They said Miss McKee’s killing, 21 years after the Good Friday Agreement, was an
‘Shocking and truly senseless’
attack on the peace process but insisted they would not be dragged into the past.
Speaking at a vigil last night, Miss McKee’s partner Sara Canning, 35, a nurse, said she had lost the ‘love of my life’.
‘Our hopes and dreams and all of her amazing potential was snuffed out by this single barbaric act,’ she added.
Saoradh, a political party that reflects New IRA thinking, released a sickening statement blaming the murder on an ‘incursion’ by ‘heavily armed Crown forces’ into the notorious Creggan housing estate.
It said: ‘During this attack on the community, a republican volunteer attempted to defend people from the Police Service of Northern Ireland/Royal Ulster Constabulary. Tragically a young journalist… was killed accidentally.’
Minutes before she was shot, Miss McKee tweeted a picture of smoke rising in front of a police vehicle at the scene of the riot, with the caption: ‘Derry tonight. Absolute madness.’
Up to 50 petrol bombs and fireworks had been hurled at police on Thursday evening and at least two cars were hijacked and torched.
Witnesses said the gunman was a teenager wearing a black hoodie and balaclava. Police said they were looking for ‘multiple suspects’. Miss McKee, who was standing near a police Land Rover, was hit when shots were fired indiscriminately towards uniformed officers.
Hundreds of people, including women and children dressed in pyjamas, were out on the streets watching the riot at the time.
Shocking video footage posted on social media showed the gunman crouching for cover with a handgun before several shots can be heard, followed by screams for help. Locals said the shooter then calmly picked up spent bullet casings before fleeing as Miss McKee was rushed to hospital. She was confirmed dead a short time later.
Journalist Leona O’Neill, who was also reporting from the riot, told Radio 4 how she took cover behind a wall when the shooting started.
She said: ‘I saw a woman lying on the ground beside the police Land Rover. Her friends had realised what had happened – they started screaming that she had been shot.
‘The gunfire was still going on, they tried to pull her to safety. The police officers got out of their Land Rover and saw the extent of the injuries of this woman and put her into the back of their vehicle and drove her at speed… through a burning barricade to the hospital.’
Stephen Martin, deputy chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, defended the
decision to launch the operation that led to the riot on Thursday, saying officers acted after receiving intelligence of a dissident republican plot to murder police.
He added: ‘The full and total responsibility for Lyra Mckee’s death lies with the organisation that sent someone out with a gun.’
Politicians and colleagues paid tribute to the author and journalist, who wrote extensively on the Troubles.
Theresa May described Miss Mckee’s death as ‘shocking and truly senseless’. Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar said the murder was ‘an act of fear, hate and cowardice’.
Locals yesterday said there had been a steady build-up of tension in recent months between republicans and the police, with many young men in Creggan and neighbouring districts angered by stop and search tactics.
Residents described ‘frightening scenes’ of young men in balaclavas openly parading around the depressed estate on Wednesday evening, painting political graffiti and goading officers into conflict.