LONDON (AP) Police in Northern Ireland searched for multiple suspects Friday after the fatal shooting of a journalist during rioting in Londonderry and sought help from the public to get a killer off the streets and into custody.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said 29-year-old journalist Lyra McKee was shot and killed, probably by a stray bullet, during overnight rioting in the citys Creggan neighborhood. It said the New IRA dissident group was most likely responsible.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said a gunman fired a number of shots at police during the unrest that began Thursday evening.
We believe this to be a terrorist act, he said.
Police on Friday night released closed-circuit TV footage showing the man suspected of firing the shots that killed McKee.
Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said the footage shows the gunman at the corner and an individual picking up something from the ground on the same corner. We are releasing this to encourage anyone with information to make contact with us.
He said locals know the identity of the gunman and urged them to come forward to try to help us take a killer off the streets.
The killing reminded many of the decades of violence that plagued Northern Ireland before the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement. It was condemned by all the major political parties as well as the prime ministers of Britain and Ireland.
Speaking in Dublin, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said the people of Ireland and Northern Ireland had chosen peace and cooperation on Good Friday 21 years ago and will not be dragged into the past by political violence.
McKee rose to prominence in 2014 with a moving blog post Letter to my 14 year old self describing the struggle of growing up gay in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland.
In the post, she described the shame she felt at 14 as she kept the secret of being gay from her family and friends and the love she eventually received when she was finally able to reveal it.
She also had recently signed a contract to write two books.
Hours before her death, she tweeted a photo of the rioting with the words: Derry tonight. Absolute madness.
Her partner, Sara Canning, told a vigil Friday that McKees amazing potential had been snuffed out.
Canning said the senseless murder has left me without the love of my life, the woman I was planning to grow old with.
It has left so many friends without their confidante, she added.
