Sharp exchanges between SDLP and DUP as 23-year-old man shot dead by police is named
The man shot dead by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) at a vehicle checkpoint in Co Down on Sunday morning has been named.
He was Stephen Craig Colwell (23) with an address at Cullybackey, a village outside Ballymena, Co Antrim. His parents are understood to live in a loyalist enclave of west Belfast.
Police opened fire on the car as it approached a checkpoint on Church Street which had been set up following a report the car was stolen.
The two women and three men who were in the silver-coloured BMW car along with Mr Colwell were released yesterday on bail after being questioned.
The office of the Police Ombudsman is continuing its investigation. A team of 15 detectives under chief investigator Justice Felice is working on a report expected to take some months.
The PSNI officer involved in the shooting is said to be traumatised. He has not been suspended by Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde, but is understood not to be on duty at present.
The killing has led to sharp exchanges between the SDL,P which has questioned the level of force deployed against the stolen car, and the DUP, which criticised "a rush to judgment" by nationalists.
South Down MP Eddie McGrady referred to a theory which suggests a second car was involved, probably in pursuit of the silver BMW. "This is the second such incident in a relatively short period in which firearms were used in a car pursuit.
"One would have to examine the rationale behind such use of potentially lethal force and the policy surrounding it. Obviously, a full inquiry is required immediately, and the officers involved should be relieved of their duties pending clarification of the incident and the code of conduct pertaining to use of lethal weapons," he said.
Margaret Ritchie, his colleague and South Down Assembly member, asked publicly why a "stinger", a spiked device drawn across the road to disable cars, was not used by police and why the car's occupants were not apprehended by less lethal means. She called for "a speedy and swift investigation - not one dragged out over two or three years".
However, DUP Assembly member Jim Wells criticised the SDLP, claiming it had rushed to judgment and "not stood by the police".
He said: "Police obviously had to make a split-second decision based on the information they had. As a result of that, shots were fired and a man has died. We must wait now until the investigation is completed."
Ms Ritchie criticised Mr Wells's call for the ombudsman's team to be left to complete its inquiries, claiming there wouldn't be a Police Ombudsman were it not for the SDLP.