Loyalist drug dealer shot dead
A loyalist paramilitary drug dealer was shot dead in Northern Ireland today when a gunman opened fire as his terrified child looked on.
Up to 15 bullets were sprayed into Stephen Warnock’s BMW by the pillion passenger on a motorcycle which pulled up alongside the parked car in Newtownards, Co Down.
He was hit several times and died at the scene. But his three-year-old daughter, who was in the back seat, escaped injury.
The victim, who was in his mid 30s, was a senior member of the hardline Loyalist Volunteer Force.
Two of his brothers were killed at the height of the violence in Northern Ireland 30 years ago.
It is understood Warnock had switched allegiances from that organisation’s bitter rivals in the Ulster Volunteer Force.
Security sources said detectives were examining the dead man’s links to the narcotics trade as a likely motive.
One said: “We’re looking at a fight among loyalist paramilitaries over drugs.”
As forensic experts moved in, police launched a hunt for the gunmen, seen speeding away from scene on the Circular Road, yards away from Regent House Grammar School.
The police commander for Newtownards said the victim may have had a conversation with the killers before being shot.
Chief Superintendent Judith Gillespie added: “The child is obviously deeply traumatised.
“It’s an absolutely despicable act to shoot a man in cold blood in front of his three-year-old daughter.”
Although he had set up home in Newtownards, the dead man had grown up in a staunchly loyalist area of east Belfast.
Two of his brothers were killed in 1972.
In September Robert Warnock, 18, was shot dead by an off-duty police man during an attempted robbery at a bar on the outskirts of the city.
A month later his 15-year-old brother William was knocked down and killed by an army vehicle in east Belfast.
Both men’s names later appeared on roll of honour included in an Ulster Defence Association mural painted just streets away.
The Northern Ireland Security Minister, Jane Kennedy, voiced outrage at the shooting.
“Another man has effectively been executed by cold-blooded gangsters who believe they are above the law,” he said.
“This barbaric murder could have been even more tragic, as it was carried out while a very young child was in the car.”
The Democratic Unionist MP for the area, Iris Robinson, described the murder as an horrific attack.
She added: “We should also be thankful that the burst of gunfire which killed this man did not kill others especially pupils attending nearby Regents House school.”
Tom Hamilton, an Ulster Unionist Assembly member insisted there could be no justification for the shooting.
“No cause is worth the taking of a life,” he said.
“It is disturbing that such an attack took place in broad daylight and that the life of a young child was also put at risk.”
