Northern Ireland

Murder victim Kevin Conway blasted in head and body

PSNI confirm west Belfast arrest

Kevin Conway was shot multiple times in his own home
Murder victim Kevin Conway (PSNI/PA)

Murder victim Kevin Conway was shot a number of times in the head and body, police have confirmed.

The father-of-two was gunned down at a property in the Rossnareen Park area of west Belfast last Tuesday.

A 37-year-old man arrested in west Belfast on Wednesday was released on bail a day later to allow for further enquiries to be carried out.

Mr Conway (26), who was from the Kilwilkie estate in Lurgan, was an enforcer and drug debt collector for the Co Armagh based drugs gang known as The Firm.

The Irish News revealed last week that the west Belfast property where the victim was gunned down was targeted in a suspected pipe bomb attack in August last year.

At the time the PSNI said that it had received a report that a “suspicious object”, which they later declared a viable device, had been left in the Rosnareen Park area.



Police have said they are keeping an “open mind on any connection” with the murder of Mr Conway.

He was one of three men charged in relation to the murder of Lurgan man Shane Whitla in the town on January 12 last year, and was alleged to have lured the victim to his “execution”.

Prosecutors have claimed Mr Whitla was killed over a suspected drug debt to The Firm.

Mr Conway was granted bail for a second time in relation to the murder last July after he had earlier absconded from police.

The PSNI returned to the murder scene on Tuesday as their investigation continues.