Teenager shot in street 'was death feud target'

A teenager was shot in a west Belfast street today after a failed attempt to kidnap and murder him, his family claimed.

Wayne McComb, 17, is believed to have been targeted as part of a bitter family feud in the Ballymurphy area which has already left one man dead.

His brother Ned, 21, watched as the teenager was followed by another man after he left the family home around 8am.

He said: “As soon as he got out of my sight I heard a loud bang and I thought he was dead.”

Wayne was grabbed from behind on the Whiterock Road by a man who attempted to haul him into a waiting car.

He managed to break free but was shot in the back of the leg as horrified primary school children looked on.

Ned McComb claimed his brother had a lucky escape and forecast the feud would claim more lives.

He said: “Wayne would probably have been taken away and tortured and we would have found him dead a couple of weeks later.

“There is going to be someone else dead.

“There is more or less a bounty on our heads.”

The shooting is the latest tragedy to hit the family.

Wayne’s sister Debbie, 15, was killed by a joyrider in 2002 and his brother, Michael, took his own life two years later.

The teenager is being treated in the fracture unit of the city’s Royal Victoria Hospital but his injury is not life-threatening.

Ned McComb said the shooting followed an attack on the family home in Glenalina Park last week and a vicious street assault on Wayne and his father, Jim, in the early hours of Sunday.

He said the assailants taunted his brother and father and vowed to desecrate Debbie and Michael’s graves.

Tensions have been running high in the Ballymurphy area since father-of-six Gerard Devlin was murdered last month.

He was stabbed to death as he picked up his children in Whitecliff Parade.

There have been a number of arson attacks on homes and several death threats have been issued.

Wayne, who recently received a death threat, was thought to have been targeted as he is friendly with members of the Devlin family.