BELFAST: A former leading figure in the Continuity IRA dissident republican paramilitary group has been shot dead, Northern Irish police said yesterday.
Tommy Crossan, 43, once the Belfast leader of the Irish Republican Army splinter group, was shot several times on Friday while sitting in an office in the Northern Irish capital.
Police have arrested a 26-year-old man in connection with the killing.
Crossan, who had six children and five grandchildren, was gunned down at a fuel depot in full view of surrounding houses.
“Mr Crossan was shot a number of times at close range in his upper body area as he sat in the office of the business of a family friend,” detective superintendent Jonathan Roberts told reporters.
It was a “brutal and ruthless attack which has no place in society,” he said.
“Mr Crossan was known to police, but no matter what his lifestyle was, absolutely nothing justifies this barbaric action.
“One line of inquiry centres on individuals or groups who would associate themselves with dissident groupings.” Crossan, who was believed to have been the subject of a death threat, was once the CIRA’s Belfast leader but had been expelled from the group some years ago. AFP
