Omagh shooting: Attack on PSNI officer a ‘vicious act of thuggery’, says McDonald

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said there can be no “hiding place” or “sympathy” for the those responsible for the shooting of a PSNI officer in Omagh, Co Tyrone, last night.

Det Chief Inspector John Caldwell remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital, the PSNI said on Thursday morning. The off-duty police officer was with his young son when he was attacked.

An attempted murder investigation has begun, with a primary line of inquiry that the dissident republican group the New IRA was responsible.

In an interview with Morning Ireland, on RTE Radio 1, Ms McDonald condemned the attack, which occurred in front of the young son of the PSNI officer after a football training session at the Youth Sports Centre on the Killyclogher Road.

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[ Omagh shooting: Off-duty police officer shot ‘putting footballs into his boot, accompanied by his young son’ ]

[ Who are the New IRA and what have they done? ]

“There can be no hiding place for this. There can be no sympathy for this. There is no rhyme or reason politically speaking for a vicious act of thuggery like this. There is no rationale and no basis for this. The only thing that an act like this does is cause fear in the wider community.

“I am saying to everybody concerned to bring any information however small, whatever detail or insight, every piece in an investigation like this can be valuable,” Ms McDonald said.

She said the shooting had brought up the “dreaded unthinkable prospect of us going backwards” in relation to the peace process. But she vowed that was “simply not going to happen”.

“(There is) shock, anger and also a sense of determination that whoever these assailants were, whoever these criminals are, that they have to be caught. They have to be held to account,” the Sinn Féin leader said.

Ms McDonald also expressed sympathy for the trauma experienced by the officer and his family.

“Our first thoughts and our first point of conversation is concern for the police officer himself who I understand is stable but nonetheless critical. Obviously for his family, for his wider community and his colleagues in the PSNI.

Ms McDonald said she did not know if dissident Republicans were responsible for the attack.

“I don’t know is the honest answer. Obviously, as you have reported that will be a line of inquiry. The policing authorities themselves are better placed than I. I could only speculate.”

“We need an all-Ireland effort, co-operation between An Garda Síochána and the PSNI to find the motive for this act and more importantly to apprehend the perpetrators.”