Who is Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell? | The Sun
THE shooting of an off-duty police officer in Omagh, Northern Ireland, has been described by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as "disgraceful".
Here's everything we know about the victim, John Caldwell.
Who is John Caldwell?
DCI John Caldwell is a police officer in Omagh, Northern Ireland.
He was shot while coaching an underage Gaelic football team at around 8pm on February 22, 2023.
One of the children at the coaching session was his son.
He is a well known face on TV in Northern Ireland, previously speaking at press conferences and appeals.
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What happened to John Caldwell?
DCI Caldwell was blasted a "number of times" by masked gunmen in front of his son and the young people he was coaching as he loaded footballs into his car.
The cop fell to the ground as he attempted to run, with the shooters continuing to fire at him.
A "brave" member of the public has been praised after rushing towards DCI Caldwell to administer first aid.
An attempted murder probe has been launched with political leaders in the UK and Ireland condemning the horror.
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Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was appalled by the "disgraceful shooting of an off-duty police officer in Omagh".
While Irish premier Leo Varadkar condemned the "grotesque act of attempted murder".
Around 70 young people were at Youth Sport Omagh when the gun attack happened, local sources told Belfast Live.
The attack is the most serious on a police officer since the murder of Ronan Kerr, 25, in 2011 in Omagh.
He was killed by a bomb that had been attached under his car just outside his home.
Omagh was also the scene of a bombing carried out by dissident republicans on August 15, 1998, which killed 29 people.
The car bombing was the worst single atrocity of the Troubles.
It was perpetrated by a group calling themselves the Real Irish Republican Army, an IRA splinter group who opposed the ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement.
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How is John Caldwell doing now?
The officer was rushed to hospital where he remains in a critical condition.
The dissident republican group, the New IRA, is the "primary focus" of the police investigation into the shooting, according to Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan.
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