The Belfast man murdered outside a pub was not the victim of a paramilitary plot, the PSNI said yesterday.
Mr Rab McCartney was attacked on a Belfast city centre street after a row flared in a pub where he had been drinking with friends on January 30th.
He died the following day in hospital of knife wounds and a murder inquiry began.
Det Chief Insp Kevin Dunwoody, the senior investigating officer, said yesterday: "At the minute we believe there's nothing to suggest this was carried out by any organisation in pursuance of its organisational aims or objectives."
A senior police source has told The Irish Times that a member of a paramilitary group could still have been involved. However, it was not believed that the 33-year-old father of two died as a result of a planned attack.
Detectives said yesterday they are following up some 500 leads and examining video evidence from CCTV cameras in the vicinity of the murder.
The investigation team also wants to track down a dark blue car and a silver Corsa vehicle believed to have been in the Bridge Street and Cromac Street area at the time of the killing.
Seven people, including a republican figure, have been arrested in Belfast and Ardglass, Co Down, but all have been released without charge.
The dead man's friend, badly injured in the stabbing, spoke yesterday of the incident in which he had his throat cut and suffered other serious wounds.
Speaking to the Irish News from his hospital bed, Mr Brendan Devine (31), said he and his friend had been involved in a "heated argument" with another person, understood to be a woman, in the bar.
"I walked around the bar and I felt the presence of five fellas around me and was hit over the head with a bottle," he said.
"I remember a hand coming over my face and my throat was slashed a couple of times," Mr Devine said.
Mr McCartney's funeral takes place in Belfast today.