John Caldwell shooting: Officer had investigated ‘New IRA’ murders

A senior Northern Ireland detective who was shot at least four times by two suspected ‘New IRA’ gunmen had been investigating the group for the murder of Lyra McKee and a deadly car bomb attack on a fellow policeman. 

Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell was putting footballs in the back of his car after coaching an under-15s team at Youth Sport Omagh in Co Tyrone when he was ambushed by the two masked men at around 8pm yesterday. 

After they fired several shots, the father ran a short distance before falling to the ground, where the pair continued to fire at him as screaming children ran to safety. He is now ‘fighting for his life’ in hospital, police say.

Mr Caldwell is a familiar face on the TV news in Northern Ireland and is accustomed to giving press conferences about his work with the major investigations team, which investigates dissident republican terrorism and organised crime groups.

His most high profile investigations have included two attacks blamed on the New IRA – the murder of journalist Lyra McKee when she was covering a riot in 2019, and the car bomb killing of fellow PSNI officer Ronan Kerr in 2011. 

No one has ever been charged for Kerr’s murder, which happened just two miles from where Mr Caldwell was gunned down last night.  

Making an appeal for information on the 10th anniversary of Constable Kerr’s murder in 2021, Mr Caldwell’s words now assume a chilling poignancy given what happened to him in the same Co Tyrone town. 

‘His job was to protect the community,’ he said.

‘Despicably, people living in his own community planned and plotted to kill him simply because he was a police officer bravely going out every day to protect people and make communities safer places to live and work.’

Mr Caldwell also investigated the murder of PSNI officer Stephen Carroll at the hands of the ‘Continuity IRA’, who had lured officers into an ambush by smashing a window with a brick.

John Paul Wootton, 17, and Stephen Carroll, 37, were convicted of murder and jailed for life. 

Today, PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne confirmed three men aged 38, 45, 47 had been arrested in Omagh and Coalisland under the Terrorism Act on suspicion of Mr Caldwell’s attempted murder. 

He is the first police officer to be shot in a gun attack in Northern Ireland since 2017, when a uniformed officer was injured after being shot at by dissident republicans with an AK-47. 

There has been a spate of violence by dissident republicans in recent years, including in November 2022 when a police patrol vehicle was bombed in Strabane, County Tyrone.

Officers said they suspected the New IRA was behind the attack, which led to four men being arrested before they were later released. 

Last year, it emerged that a family man posing as an NHS worker had managed to inflate the group while working as an agent for MI5. 

Dennis McFadden – ‘the man who was always there but was never there’ – bugged meetings and gleaned information from suspected terrorists by treating them to Spanish holidays and Celtic tickets, according to court documents. 

As part of ‘Operation Arbacia’, he also hosted the group’s so-called army council of senior figures in rented Airbnbs, with the agent allegedly staying behind when everyone else went to collect ashtrays and glasses to dust for DNA.

He was last seen by neighbours in 2020 and is believed to be living under a new identity.  

The incident comes at a time of heightened tension in the province following controversy over the Northern Ireland protocol, which is part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement. 

Opposition to the protocol by the Democratic Unionist Party has prompted its members to boycott Stormont. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is currently seeking to renegotiate the deal in a bid to end the impasse. 

It also comes two months before commemorations to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, a peace deal which helped bring an end to the Troubles. 

The attack has been condemned by political leaders across the UK and Ireland. 

At a press conference in Belfast, PSNI chief constable Simon Byrne said: ‘This morning we have arrested three men aged 38, 45 and 47 in Omagh and Coalisland in connection with John’s attempted murder.

‘They’re currently being questioned by detectives at Musgrave serious crime suite.’

The dissident republican group the New IRA are the ‘primary focus’ of the PSNI’s attempted murder probe.

Confirming his colleague remains in a critical condition, Mr Byrne said: ‘Clearly as an organisation, we are utterly shocked and angered by last night’s brazen and calculated attack,’ he said. 

‘John is a father, husband and colleague, and a valued and active member of his local community.’

He said Mr Caldwell has been a valued police officer for 26 years ‘committed to public service as a senior investigating officer supporting victims and their families in bringing offenders to justice’.

‘John is held in the highest esteem within our organisation. He is a credit to his family and to the police service,’ he said. 

‘And of course our thoughts are with John and his family as he fights for his life in hospital today.’

Describing the attack as ‘absolutely callous’, PSNI assistant chief constable Mark McEwan told reporters: ‘Last night at approximately 8pm at the youth sports centre in Killyclogher Road, Omagh, when John was putting footballs into the boot of the car, accompanied by his young son, two gunmen approached and we believe both have fired multiple shots.

‘John ran a short distance and fell to the ground when the gunmen continued to fire shots at him.

‘That shows the absolute callous nature of this attack, and it is utterly disgusting that the gunmen carried out this attempted murder in front of crowds of adults and children.

‘John’s own young son was with him at the time and witnessed the shooting. The trauma inflicted on this young boy is just horrific and he will never forget seeing his dad shot multiple times.

‘The gunmen fired from close range in the busy sports training area, which could also quite easily have killed or seriously injured children who were present at the time of the shooting.

‘Those who carried out this attack were completely reckless in their actions and they had absolutely no regard for the officer who was injured or anyone in the crowd,’ he added.   

Mr McEwan said the dissident republican group the New IRA was the primary focus of the police investigation.

He said: ‘The two gunmen, who were dressed in dark clothing, carried out this cowardly attack and left the scene on foot. At least two other vehicles were struck by their volley of shots.

‘We believe the gunmen fled the scene in a small, dark-coloured vehicle shortly after 8pm. We believe this vehicle was abandoned and set on fire in Racolpa Road, Omagh.

‘We want to hear from anyone who was in the area or who witnessed what happened to get in touch with any information that could help with our investigation.’

He added that there were ‘many other young people, children’ waiting to be picked up by their parents when the attack on John Caldwell took place.

‘And those children ran for cover in sheer terror towards the centre,’ he said. 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was appalled by the ‘disgraceful shooting of an off-duty police officer in Omagh’.

The New IRA was previously blamed for the killing of journalist Lyra McKee in Londonderry in 2019.                 

Last November, the group was thought to be behind the attempted murder of two police officers in a bomb attack in Strabane, Co Tyrone.

Omagh has seen significant dissident violence in the past, including a Real IRA bomb attack in 1998 which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.

It was also where Constable Ronan Kerr was murdered in April 2011.

The terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland was lowered from severe to substantial for the first time in 12 years last March.

The shooting of Mr Caldwell has been condemned by politicians across the UK and Ireland.

Irish premier Leo Varadkar condemned the ‘grotesque act of attempted murder’.

She told RTE: ‘There can be no hiding place for this. There can be no sympathy for this. 

‘There is no rhyme or reason politically speaking for a vicious act of thuggery like this.

‘Now what we need is an all-Ireland effort co-operation between An Garda Siochana and the PSNI to find the motive for this act, and more importantly to apprehend the perpetrators and anybody with any evidence or any information must not hesitate in bringing that forward immediately to the appropriate authorities.’ 

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s political leaders have issued a joint statement condemning the shooting of a senior police officer in Omagh.  

Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Alliance leader Naomi Long, UUP leader Doug Beattie and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said they stand united in outright condemnation of the attack.

‘We speak for the overwhelming majority of people right across our community who are outraged and sickened by this reprehensible and callous attempted murder,’ they said.

‘The community of Omagh has endured profound suffering, loss, and pain in the past which has left a deep trauma, and so this act of violence has left people there rightly angered.

‘There is absolutely no tolerance for such attacks by the enemies of our peace. Those responsible must be brought to justice.

‘This will require the full co-operation of the public whom we call upon to assist police in this attempted murder investigation.

‘Together we stand with John’s family and his colleagues in the police service at this time.’

Former Irish premier Bertie Ahern also spoke of his shock at hearing of the ‘callous and horrendous attempted murder’. 

‘Thankfully events we don’t see happening too much but it’s a throwback to the past and there are still evil people intent on causing trouble,’ the former Taoiseach told an event in Dublin.

‘(They) went out last night to a sports venue and tried to kill a decent guy who was off duty trying to give his time to kids, to help them with their sporting activities and sporting endeavours and a good community man.

‘We wish him well and a safe recovery, hopefully.’

Liam Kelly, Chair of the Police Federation of Northern Ireland, said that the ideology believed to be behind the shooting of Mr Caldwell is ‘abhorrent’ and ‘bereft of any humanity’.

He told BBC Radio 4’s World at One:  ‘The ideology that they may or may not have is doing nothing for our society, it creates misery and heartache and it’s bereft of any humanity. 

‘We have a man, providing a community service last night, shot multiple times in front of not only members of the public and children, but his own son. That’s absolutely abhorrent.’

The principal of Omagh High School, whose students were at the scene where an off-duty police officer was shot, has said that violence must be ‘pushed away from our community’.

‘I can only imagine how difficult it must be for the youngsters this morning, waking up in the aftershock of what they experienced last night,’ Christos Gaitatzis told BBC Radio Ulster.

‘I feel that those people affected here last night were my children, were my family. We really need to get together as a community in order to make sure that these types of instances, that contain violence in the most heinous way I can describe, have to be pushed away from our community.

‘(We have to) make sure that those individuals are caught and isolated out of our community to make sure that Omagh remains the town that it always has been – a town that is together, is coming together at all times, especially during difficult circumstances like this.’ 

Anyone with information about the attack can contact police on 101 quoting reference number 1831 of 22/02/23.

If you prefer to remain anonymous contact independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.