A man was being questioned by PSNI detectives last night in connection with the death of a man whom police originally thought may have been the victim of a hit-and-run incident.
It later emerged, however, that the dead man, understood to be a Scottish bandsman who had been attending an Orange Order parade in Maghera, Co Derry, on Friday, was viciously beaten in an assault by a number of men in Tobermore, Co Derry, in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Police are now investigating whether his assailants placed his body on the road for an approaching car to strike him, or whether they abandoned him on the road so that he would be hit. The PSNI said it was not yet clear whether the man died from being hit by the car or from the injuries he suffered in the assault.
There were also local reports that the driver of the car stopped at the scene but could have been warned off by the gang who assaulted the Scottish man. The PSNI have appealed to the driver to come forward.
Police said they were not treating the assault as sectarian.
One local source said that there may have been an incident involving the man and a number of other men in Maghera associated with the parade and that this escalated when the victim, said to be in his 30s, attended a function at a soccer club in Tobermore.
Police yesterday arrested a man in connection with the murder.
Local SDLP Assembly member Patsy McGlone offered his sympathy to the family of the dead man.
Sinn Féin MP Martin McGuinness said he was horrified by the murder.
"No matter who this man is, he was someone's son, brother or father, and his family will be mourning his loss," he said.
