A man was in a critical condition in a Belfast hospital last night after being shot in a suspected drugs-related attack. The man was shot in the Motte N' Bailey Bar in Dunmurry on the outskirts of Belfast at about 7 p.m.
Two men entered the bar, singled the man out and shot him a number of times in the head. The men left and drove at high speed towards the nationalist area of Twinbrook.
The RUC recovered the car believed to have been used in the shooting in a car-park in Derriaghy, Co Antrim, last night. The white Vauxhall Cavalier hatchback was reported stolen on Saturday afternoon.
The injured man was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast where his condition was last night described as critical. A police inspector at the scene would only say the killing was not believed to be sectarian. However, the man's alleged drug-dealing activities and the fact the attackers fled towards a nationalist area fuelled speculation that republican paramilitaries were involved. Bystanders in the mainly Protestant area of Dunmurry seemed to agree with this.
The Motte N' Bailey has experienced several disturbances in recent months, but would be considered to be a mixed bar. It is situated at Dunmurry Crossroads, a few hundred metres from an RUC station.
Last night, forensic experts and detectives were at the scene which remained cordoned off and as many as 30 witnesses were being kept inside the bar for questioning.
In a separate incident, which also took place about 7 p.m., a number of shots were fired and several windows broken at a house on the Comber Road in Ballygowan to the east of Belfast. Four men were believed to be involved and the car they used was found burnt out at the leisure centre in Comber.
The shootings follow the death on Friday of Mr Martin Taylor, who was killed in the loyalist Ballysillan area.
Mr Taylor (36) of Prestwick Park, was shot several times in the upper body by two gunmen. Police described the shooting as "a brutal execution".
The RUC said then it had not ruled out the possibility of an ongoing loyalist feud.
Another man who had been working with Mr Taylor outside a house escaped injury despite what police called "indiscriminate" gunfire. Eyewitnesses said he managed to run away from the scene while the gunmen fired shots after him.
PUP Assembly member Mr Billy Hutchinson said he knew both men who were shot at on Friday. He said he "guaranteed" the UVF was not involved in the shooting and said if the shootings were related to the murder of the UVF commander, Mr Richard Jameson, then drug dealers, not loyalists, had been responsible.
Mr Jameson was shot outside Portadown in January and it is suspected the LVF carried out the murder. The UVF had threatened revenge for his murder.
There was also a shooting last Wednesday when a motorcycle gunman tried to shoot a workman on the Oldpark Road. The workman was believed to be from Dungannon. The man told the UDP, which has links to the UDA and UFF, he had not been shot because the gun had jammed. The man was said to be an associate of a loyalist fundamentalist preacher with LVF connections.
The LVF is said to have close links with the UFF, forged in recent months, but it is not clear if either organisation was responsible for Friday's murder.
In February, two teenagers were stabbed to death in what was believed to be an internal loyalist feud. Mr David McIlwaine (18) and Mr Andrew Robb (19) were found dead by a roadside in Tandragee in Co Armagh.