PSNI officer injured after being shot in car at traffic lights

A PSNI officer was shot in the chest in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, yesterday in the second attack of its kind in the North in less than a week.

The officer was shot in his car as he sat at traffic lights outside St Patrick’s Church in the town at about 5.45pm and dissident republicans have again been blamed for this latest atrocity.

Last week, in Derry, a 43-year-old Catholic probationary officer, who joined the PSNI less than two years’ ago, was shot by the RIRA minutes after he had left his 15-year-old son at Lumen Christi College in Bishop Street. He sustained shotgun pellet injuries to his upper body which were not life threatening.

In last night’s attack, a gunman stepped out in front of the car as it slowed down and, using what is believed to have been a handgun, fired a number of shots, some of which hit the policeman in the chest.

The injured man managed to drive through the lights and was rushed to hospital a short time later.

The shooting was condemned by all of the North’s political parties, including Sinn Féin.

Meanwhile, a man will appear in court this morning in relation to the murder of a man by dissident paramilitaries earlier this year. The man was one of eight people arrested in a cross-border police investigation into a double murder in Belfast last March.

Edward Burns, 36, and from Belfast, was shot dead on March 12. A second man, Joe Jones, 38 and also from Belfast, was beaten to death in what police believe was a double murder.

The Continuity IRA has been blamed for the two murders. Mr Burns and Mr Jones were former members of the CIRA and were suspected of trying to set up a rival group in the Belfast area.

Four people — three men and a woman — were arrested in Dublin and Dundalk, Co Louth, on Sunday.

Then, yesterday four more people were detained by police in Belfast.

A Garda spokesman said yesterday: “Gardaí have arrested four individuals — three men and one woman — in connection with the ongoing investigation into the murders of Joseph Jones and Edward Burns in Belfast on March 12, 2007.

“The arrests were made yesterday by detectives in Dundalk and Dublin and follow on from close co-operation between An Garda Síochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland.”

The spokesman later said that the woman had been released and that the three men were still in custody.

Last night, the spokesman said a 25-year-old man was due to appear before Dublin District Court on charges connected with the death of Mr Burns and other charges related to the incident.

Detectives were in contact with colleagues in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) over Sunday and yesterday, after which four people were picked up for questioning.

A PSNI spokesman said the arrests followed close contact with officers in the Republic. “There has been a lot of close co-operation between ourselves and An Garda Síochána.

“It’s not a joint operation as such, but close cooperation definitely.”

In its latest report, the International Monitoring Commission said the CIRA was behind the murders.

“The victims were both former Belfast members who had established a rival group in the same area,” the report said.