THE suspicious shooting dead of a Derry man in a Bronx apartment has prompted the Bronx district attorney to present the case to a grand jury.
Heslin "Hessy" Phelan (39) died on January 21st from a bullet to the head, fired from a gun belonging to Officer Richard Molloy of the New York city police.
On the night of the shooting, Officer Molloy and Phelan were drinking in the Oak bar in the Bainbridge section of the Bronx, when the bartender, Ms Margaret McGrath, asked Officer Molloy, who was her boyfriend, to take Phelan back to her nearby apartment because Phelan appeared to be drunk.
Once inside the apartment, Officer Molloy claims Phelan committed suicide by grabbing his gun and shooting himself through the left eye. After the shooting, Officer Molloy called the police to report a suicide.
Officer Molloy was later stripped of his gun, put on modified duty and placed under investigation by the NY Police Internal Affairs Department.
However, a major development in the case occurred on July 3rd, when the Bronx medical examiner, Dr Heda Jindrack, ruled that Phelan's death was the result of a homicide, not a suicide as reported.
It was also revealed that a third person who was in another room of the apartment at the time of the shooting heard an argument between Officer Molloy and Phelan.
The witness, an Irishman who has asked not to be identified, told police he heard Phelan say to Officer Molloy words to the effect of "Go on, go on", before the fatal shot was fired.
The decision of Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson to present the case to a grand jury comes after a concerted eight month campaign by Phelan's family and friends in the Bronx, who never accepted that Phelan committed suicide.
Phelan's mother, Ms Anna Phelan, who is on her second visit to New York to campaign on her son's behalf, says she never accented that her son killed himself.
She claims that there was a cover up.
Phelan, a house painter and a former member of the INLA, spent almost 10 years in the Maze prison in the 1970s and 1980s. He emigrated to New York seven years ago.
It is now up to the Bronx Grand Jury to decide whether Officer Molloy will be charged with Phelan's death.