A WEST Belfast teenager shot four times earlier this year is among five young people to have been arrested in connection with the murder of Christopher Meli.
Aaron Stilges was shot in the ankle, left leg and right knee after masked men entered his family home in the Turf Lodge area in February.
He was arrested on Saturday afternoon along with another 18-year-old man and a 16-year-old youth by detectives investigating the brutal murder hours earlier of Mr Meli, who was kicked and punched to death.
Three teenagers, two aged 18 and a 16-year-old, are due to appear in Lisburn magistrates court this morning charged with murder.
Two others aged 17 and 18, remain in police custody.
Hundreds of people attended a vigil for Mr Meli (20) at his home in Sliabh Dubh in west Belfast last night.
Fr Darach Mac Giolla Catháin, parish priest of Corpus Christi, thanked everyone who has supported the family.
"In the midst of Christopher's violent and tragic death we need our light to shine all the more brightly in the world at this time," he said.
Police believe up to 20 youths, some of them female, were involved in the "sustained and vicious" attack in the Glasvey area of Twinbrook sometime between midnight and 1am on Saturday.
It is understood Mr Meli's body has yet to be returned to the family, with a specialist due to examine his injuries today.
Detective Chief Inspector Richard Campbell said Christopher was "one of a group of four people when he was set upon by a number of individuals from a much larger group".
"There appears to have been an initial incident on the Stewartstown Road before the attack on Christopher in an area known locally as Doc’s Lane. Christopher became separated from his friends and he was fatally assaulted at the location where his body was found," he said.
"Some of those people who were in that larger group may not have been involved in the attack on Christopher, nor may they have anticipated the outcome of the attack.
"It is only a matter of time before detectives identify everyone who was there and I am appealing for those people to come forward now and co-operate with this investigation by telling police what they saw."
Mr Meli was father to a two-year-old boy, Kyle Christopher.
A friend, Ryan Morris, was also assaulted but later released from hospital.
Dissident republicans are believed to have issued threats to a number of people following the attack.
Candles being lit at Christopher Meli vigil pic.twitter.com/2H05ExF8qF
— Claire Simpson (@ClaireMSimpson) December 14, 2015
