YOUNG MAN MURDERED IN ANTRIM

POLICE suspect that there may have been paramilitary involvement the brutal murder of a 19-year-old man in Antrim.

A caller to a Belfast newsroom, claiming to be from dissident paramilitary group the Red Hand Defenders, said that they had carried out the murder of Ciarán Cummings.

The young man was gunned down at around 7.15am on Wednesday morning as he waited for a lift to work near to the town’s Greystone roundabout.

Police said that Mr Cummings was approached by two men on a black motorcycle who fired several shots. The teenager was later pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting.

Extending his sympathies to the man’s family, RUC District Commander for Antrim, Superintendent Richard Meek, said: “This young man was on his way to work in Newtownabbey when he was gunned down by persons utilising a motorcycle.

“Given the nature of the attack and the ruthlessness of it, one cannot rule out a paramilitary type murder.”

Following the attack the two men made off towards the Motorway along the Greystone Road. Police forensic teams are examining the scene, which has been cordoned off causing traffic disruption in the area.

The dead man who was a catholic lived in what is described as a quiet mixed estate in Antrim, in an area with a good community relations record.

The shooting has provoked widespread revulsion in the local community with local community and political leaders uniting in condemnation of the shooting and appealing for restraint.

Secretary of State Dr John Reid said that he hoped that the murder would act as a spur to complete the peace process.

(SP)