Catholic bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown has appealed to anyone with information about the New IRA murder of journalist Lyra McKee to pass it on to police.
Detectives are continuing to question four people, including a 15-year-old youth about a riot in Derry’s Creggan on the night Ms McKee (29) was fatally wounded. The Belfast woman died after she was shot in the head by a New IRA gunman who fired indiscriminately into a crowd of people standing beside a PSNI Land Rover during the riot on April 18.
Bishop McKeown said the way forward for the Creggan community was for it to stand together and let the world know Ms McKee’s murder had not happened in their name.
“Those who have been involved in things like this should be handed over to the statutory authorities. If we want a civilised society, we cannot leave the administration of justice of decisions about who’s guilty of things to people standing on street corners or in back rooms of houses,” Bishop McKeown said.
The Derry church leader said whoever is involved in crime should be dealt with by the civil authorities, no matter what type of crime they were involved in.
“We have appointed a civil police force to take responsibility for all those things. Give them all the evidence. I really encourage people to come forward because the Creggan community is hurting because of what was done at its heart,” he said.
The senior police officer investigating Ms McKee’s murder said the 15-year-old youth and three other men, aged 18,38 and 51, who were arrested in Derry on Thursday, were being held at the PSNI’s serious crime suite at Musgrave Park police station. All four are being questioned about the riot which was taking place when Ms McKee was shot.
