The police reported that the woman lost her life at the hand of a violent dissident republican.
"A single gunman fired shots in a residential area of the city and as a result wounded Ms McKee. Officers quickly administered first aid before transporting her in the back of a landrover to hospital. Tragically she died from her injuries. At this stage we believe her murder was carried out by a violent dissident republican. Our thoughts are very much with the family and friends of Ms McKee, who was a journalist based in Belfast," Assistant Chief Constable for District Policing Mark Hamilton said as quoted in the press release.
ACC Mark Hamilton says ‘our thoughts are very much with the family & friends of Lyra McKee’. He says her murder ‘demonstrates all too starkly when terrorists bring violence & guns into the community members of the public are placed in severe danger’. pic.twitter.com/qwUTUTFeTy
— PSNI DC&S District (@PSNIDCSDistrict) 19 апреля 2019 г.
According to Irish News, McKee collaborated with Atlantic magazine and BuzzFeed portal. Other media reports said that she was also an editor of the Mediagazer news site in Belfast and a rising star in investigative journalism.
Hamilton noted that the Irish Republican Army (New IRA), a local republican revolutionary paramilitary organization, is most likely to be responsible for the attack.
The Twitter users reacted to McKee's demise with one of them saying that this incident shows the fragility of peace in Northern Ireland.
An awful tragedy and a terrible reminder of how fragile peace in Northern Ireland is. The irresponsibility of those who ignore this and blithely risk opening the way for more tragedies like this is shocking. https://t.co/m7akzw8pR2
— David Schneider (@davidschneider) 19 апреля 2019 г.
Another user underlined that the late journalist represented all the good opportunities to change Northern Ireland.
It’s hard to think today. It feels sore to breathe. #LyraMcKee represented all the good possibilities for a changing NI. Not one single word will ever justify her murder. Not one single word of hers shall ever be forgotten
— Philip McGowan (@pipmcgowan) 19 апреля 2019 г.
READ MORE: Cash For Chaos: Is Hole-in-the-Wall ATM Gang Raising Money for New IRA Conflict?
Overnight, the police said that one woman was killed after shots were fired and petrol bombs were thrown in the city of Derry, adding they are treating the shooting as a "terrorist incident."
The New IRA is a nationalist group protesting the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that put an end to the nearly 30-year period of violence and terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland. Over the past few years, the New IRA has carried out several terrorist attacks in the region. In particular, on February 22, 2017, its militants attempted to blow up a police car in Derry. In the 1970s and 1990s, clashes between local Catholics and Protestants occurred in Northern Ireland, accompanied by terrorist attacks. The attacks also occurred in the 2010s.
