Northern Ireland

Gang 'shouted wrong name' before shooting Derry man

Police were called to the scene of the attack shortly after midnight yesterday.
Police were called to the scene of the attack shortly after midnight yesterday. Police were called to the scene of the attack shortly after midnight yesterday.

THE mother of a man shot in both legs as he slept at his Derry home believes he was the victim of mistaken identity.

Bernadette McFadden (62) said gunman shouted out the wrong name as they attacked her son Eoin (38) at their Kildrum Gardens home in Derry’s Creggan early this morning. Ms McFadden said she was disgusted by the attack.

The PSNI was notified that three masked men went into a property shortly after midnight.

"Two of them entered a bedroom where a man, aged in his thirties, was sleeping and shot him twice, once in each leg. A woman, who was also in the property at the time, was thankfully physically uninjured but has been left badly shaken," a spokesman said.

Ms McFadden said she was in bed when she heard a knock at the door and believed it was her son and he had forgotten his key.

"One pushed me into the sitting room and the other two ran up stairs and just went into Eoin’s room and just shot him. They didn’t even ask who he was."

She said that moments before they shot him, the man who was keeping her in the sitting room asked if anyone else was living in the house and she said her son did. She said the gunmen shouted out the wrong name and when she told them that, they ignored her.

In a BBC interview, Ms McFadden said it was a case of mistaken identity.

"It's disgusting and I'm just really mad that they can get away with stuff like this here but I hope they don’t get away with it that they’re caught but it’s my son I’m more worried about now than any of them.," she said.

The attack was widely condemned. SDLP assembly member Sinead McLaughlin said there was no place in society for shootings. She said society must move away from the “violent legacy of the past”. Ms McLaughlin urged anyone with information to contact police.

Sinn Féin councillor, Emma McGinley said those responsible should “get off the backs of the community”. The incident was also condemned by independent councillor Sean Carr who said those behind such attacks did not represent the people of Creggan.

“That sort of action must be consigned to history,” Mr Carr said.