A COMMUNITY worker has blamed drug dealers for a gun attack on his home. Mr Tommy Cheevers, who was in his house with his family when at least four blasts struck their north Belfast home, asserted he would not be intimidated into leaving.
Mr Cheevers (41), his wife and two of their three children escaped uninjured when the shots were fired into an upstairs bedroom and downstairs living room at around 1 a.m. yesterday. The gang also damaged his van with shotgun pellets. A hijacked Peugeot taxi was later found abandoned in the loyalist Shankill area.
Mr Cheevers said he suspected that criminals involved in drugs and racketeering were responsible for the attack. He did not believe that loyalist or republican paramilitaries were implicated.
It was fortunate that none of his family was hit as the shotgun pellets ricocheted in the house, he said. Mr Cheevers added that as a community worker he had been campaigning against racketeering and drugs in Ballysillan, with a view to "cleaning up the area" so that local development might take place. These criminals had an axe to grind against him.
"Unfortunately there have been criminal elements in the area who have been dealing in drugs and racketeering. These are not associated with paramilitaries, who have recently pushed these people out. I would think that they would have been most likely to have carried out the attack," he said.
"Somebody is trying to send me some sort of message. But they can just forget about it - I ain't for moving," Mr Cheevers said.
Mr Tommy English, chairman of the Ulster Democratic Party in north Belfast, said the shooting was a senseless and despicable attack, "particularly against a person working for the benefit of his community".
