Experts examine car bomb scene
Police in the North are combing the scene of an explosion that killed a Catholic officer to find out how the dissident republican bomb was made.
Experts are gathering tiny shards of evidence from the site of the blast in Omagh, Co Tyrone, where new recruit Constable Ronan Kerr, 25, died. The car was badly damaged by the booby trap device planted in a busy residential housing area.
Security sources believe it is still too early to reach conclusions on details of the explosive as the forensic information is yet to be fully examined.
No armed group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast. The threat from dissidents has been high for some time. The Queen of England is due to visit Dublin next month and security will be tight.
Mr Kerr only finished his initial training in December last year and was on his first posting in Enniskillen. He was going to work when the device exploded as he got into his car.
His grieving mother Nuala Kerr said: “This is at a time when we are striving for a neutral police force for the good of our country and I urge all Catholic members not to be deterred by this. We all need to stand up and be counted and to strive for equality.
“We don’t want to go back into the dark days again of fear and terror. We were so proud of Ronan and all that he stood for. Don’t let his death be in vain.”
Politicians united in condemnation and vowed not to let the attack derail the solidarity.
The explosion happened as the officer got into his car in the residential Highfield Close development, off the main Gortin Road, yesterday afternoon.
The blast shocked Omagh, where 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, were killed in the 1998 Real IRA car bomb attack.
Mrs Kerr said she was also speaking on behalf of his two brothers Cathair and Aaron and sister Dairine. Their father Brian died some time ago.
“He was a wonderful son and brother, always had a smile and a helping hand for everyone. He had all the attributes of a great police officer – fair, empathetic, intelligent, humorous, a great communicator and loyal to all who knew him. And he just loved his work,” she said.
“I would like to appeal to the wider public for any information, no matter how small about this callous crime. Someone knows something. Would you please come forward and do the right thing so that justice can be done.”
Dissidents have carried out a string of similar attacks on PSNI officers in recent years and have shown a determination to identify Catholic officers in particular for attack.
Pc Stephen Carroll, 48, was gunned down in March 2009, just two days after the Real IRA shot dead two British soldiers at the Massereene Army base in Antrim.
And Pc Peadar Heffron was seriously injured when a device exploded under the driver’s seat of his car in west Belfast in January 2010.
