THE REV Anthony Curran, the priest who administered the last rites to Sean Devlin in the Markets area of Belfast on Monday evening, painted a grim picture.
"The people who murdered him will probably greet his mother as she walks down the street in the next few weeks," he said.
For a long time after Mr Devlin was shot dead in a house in Friendly Street, his mother, who lives nearby, just sat in a daze, clutching a pair of his runners, as if holding on to some final remnant of his life.
A 13 year old girl who was in the house when Mr Devlin was shot three times in the head was said to be in a terrible state. Father Curran himself was badly shaken by what he witnessed.
He condemned the IRA for the murder, dismissing any suggestions that the group, Direct Action Against Drugs, was anything other than an IRA flag of convenience. He acknowledged a reality that people who might know who killed Mr Devlin are unlikely to tell the police.
He asked the general question. "If you were one of those living in that community and you knew the ones who committed that murder, would you come forward and say that you knew who did it? And you know the risk you are taking not only for yourself but for your family as well."
It was a point that one of the RUC detectives at the murder scene conceded. Had local people seen anything, he was asked. He replied. Do they ever see anything?
Father Curran, speaking to the BBC, said the IRA holds all communities where it has great sway to ransom. "We all know that. We have been born and reared in these communities, and we know this to be the truth. The result is that people are frightened to speak out."
There can also be some tacit approval for the actions of the IRA, under the cover of the DAAD organisation. Mr Devlin was due to appear in court yesterday on cannabis possession charges. For some that will be justification for the murder.
Mr Alex Maskey, a Sinn Fein councillor in west Belfast, said his party did not condone such killings. He did not "condemn" the murder. He was critical of the RUC. "The question has been asked regularly by people within the nationalist community why is no action being taken by the authorities against these people who are imposing criminal activity, including drugs dealing?"
Since April, 1994, the IRA, using the DAAD cover name, has been blamed for eight killings, including that of Mr Devlin. Some of those murdered were involved in drugs, others were not. The IRA was not particularly discriminating in picking its targets. Some were minor drugs figures, although their first victim, Mr Mickey Mooney, ran quite a large operation.
What bolsters Father Curran's point is that nobody has been convicted of any of these murders most of which were carried out in front of witnesses.
Another factor is that as soon as a murder victim becomes tarnished with the drugs issue, rightly or wrongly, there can be a subsequent devaluation of his character. Alleged drug dealers do not figure high on the victim scale.
Indeed, the paucity of political statements to The Irish Times condemning the killing was quite noticeable yesterday. Normally, most of the major parties register their condemnation with a faxed message.
This murder is unlikely to have much bearing on whether the IRA calls a ceasefire. Most of the previous DAAD killings were carried out at Christmas last year, when the IRA was under pressure to make concessions on decommissioning.
Those killings were a signal that it would not be handing over weapons, despite the political pressure. Yesterday's killing may be another cynically coded message to its followers, and others, that whatever about the prospects of a renewed ceasefire, the IRA will take its decision from a position of strength. There was also a message that in certain working class areas of the North, the IRA writ still runs.
