A 37-year-old man was due in court Wednesday morning outside Belfast, Northern Ireland, charged with the murder of a police officer two weeks ago.
The man, whose name was not released, was scheduled to appear at Lisburn Magistrates Court outside Belfast at 10:30 a.m. (6:30 a.m. ET), the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said. The man is also charged with possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, the PSNI said. Three others — two men and a woman — remain in custody in connection with the shooting, police said. A 17-year-old male, appeared in court Tuesday charged with Carroll’s murder, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, belonging to a proscribed organization — namely the Republican splinter group, the Continuity IRA — and collecting information likely to be of use to terrorists, police said.
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Constable Stephen Carroll was killed two weeks ago in County Armagh as he responded to a call in the town of Craigavon. News reports said he was shot in the back of the head. The Continuity IRA, which does not accept the Good Friday peace accord, claimed responsibility for Carroll’s killing. The shooting happened two days after the murder of two soldiers at a base in Massereene, in County Antrim. It was the first fatal attack on British troops in the province for more than 12 years.
The shooting sparked fears of a return to the sectarian violence that Northern Ireland suffered until the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, a period known as The Troubles. Another militant splinter group, the Real IRA, reportedly claimed it had carried out the attack on the soldiers.
