Northern Ireland

Colin Horner murder: Second man arrested

Colin Horner (35) was murdered outside Sainsbury's superstore on the outskirts of Bangor, Co Down, on Sunday. Picture by Hugh Russell
Colin Horner (35) was murdered outside Sainsbury's superstore on the outskirts of Bangor, Co Down, on Sunday. Picture by Hugh Russell

A 47-YEAR-OLD man has been arrested over the murder of a loyalist in a busy supermarket car park in front of his three-year-old son.

Colin Horner (35) was shot dead in front of his young son Oscar outside Sainsbury's superstore on the outskirts of Bangor, Co Down, on Sunday afternoon.

He was just putting his son into his car when he was shot.

A 47-year-old man was arrested in Newtownards on Wednesday.

A 28-year-old man arrested on Tuesday remained in custody last night.

Mr Horner's mother Lesley told UTV her son's killers "can't be human".

"There are no words that can describe how someone can go up, whether it's my son or anybody else, and shoot them, especially with my three-year-old grandson sitting in the car," she said.

Mrs Horner said her grandson told her he heard the 'bang' of the gun being fired.

She added: "I don’t want retaliation for this, I don’t want any other family going through what we’re going through right now – it has to stop".

Mr Horner, from Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, had been living in Bangor with his girlfriend amid threats from members of the south east Antrim UDA.

He was a close friend of former UDA commander Geordie Gilmore (44) who was shot dead by the same loyalist faction in Carrickfergus in March.

Police are investigation a link between Mr Horner's murder and the long-running feud between rival loyalists. The feud has been simmering since June last year when a gang of around 100 men marched to the Gilmore home in Carrickfergus in an attempt to intimidate him from the town.