The fatal shooting on a busy street close to a number of large schools in west Belfast yesterday afternoon was a particularly chilling crime.
No thought whatsoever was given to the pupils making their way home who either heard the gunfire or even saw the brutal murder in broad daylight of a man sitting in a parked car waiting to pick up a child.
The circumstances surrounding the outrage were still being established last night but there can be no place for such appalling displays of violence in west Belfast or anywhere else.
