Chairman of Beragh Swifts Football Club, Ricky Lyons, describes Det Ch Insp Caldwell as a “good, hard-working man” who wants to give back to the community.

He also expresses concern for children who witnessed the attack on the volunteer coach at the Youth Sport complex.

“It’s difficult for adults to compute what has happened, never mind children,” he tells Good Morning Ulster.

“The fear those children would have felt when that happened, you just can’t imagine what was going through their minds and even still trying to process what happened.”

Mr Lyons adds the club is putting support in place for those involved and affected by the shooting on Wednesday.

“In this day and age, there is no need for violence, and the children should never, ever experience that.”

The PSNI say the primary focus of their investigation into Wednesday's shooting is on dissident republicans.

The term describes a range of individuals who do not accept the Good Friday Agreement – the 1998 peace deal which ended the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The Provisional IRA – the main armed republican paramilitary group for most of the conflict – declared a ceasefire in the run up to the agreement and officially ended its violent campaign in 2005.

Dissident republicanism is made up of various groups which broke away from the Provisional IRA in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, including the Continuity IRA and New IRA.

The groups are much smaller than the Provisional IRA, although they have access to high-calibre weapons and have used improvised explosive devices and mortars in attacks and attempted attacks.

They have continued to use violence to attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland in a single state but their activities have been sporadic and often undermined by the security services.

Read more: Timeline of dissident republican activity

A senior detective in many high profile inquiries, including the 2011 murder of his colleague Ronan Kerr by dissident republicans, Det Ch Insp Caldwell is one of Northern Ireland’s best known detectives.

From County Tyrone, he has been involved in inquiries ranging from the killing of journalist Lyria McKee in Londonderry in 2019 to the fatal shooting of Shane Whitla in Lurgan, County Armagh, in January this year.

BBC News NI understands he has been subject to threats in the past.

Mr Caldwell was also the initial lead detective investigating the killing of Natalie McNally in Lurgan.

Read more here.

Image source, Pacemaker

PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne is to meet Stormont’s main political parties later to discuss the attack.

On Thursday, Sinn Féin, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Alliance Party, Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) released a joint statement.

“We stand united in our outright condemnation of this attack,” they said.

“We speak for the overwhelming majority of people right across our community who are outraged and sickened by this reprehensible and callous attempted murder."

Image source, PA Media

• There's been a fourth arrest, a man aged 22, following the shooting of an off-duty police officer in Omagh.
• Two attackers targeted Det Ch Insp John Caldwell as he packed footballs into his car with his son.
• The 48-year-old has suffered life-changing injuries and is in a critical but stable condition after the attack on Wednesday.
• Police say they're focusing their investigation on the dissident republican group, the New IRA.
• Three men - aged 38, 45, and 47 - arrested in Omagh and Coalisland on Thursday - remain in custody.

Welcome to our coverage of the latest developments in the attempted murder of Det Ch Insp John Caldwell.

The senior officer was shot a number of times as he attended a youth football training session in Omagh, County Tyrone, on Wednesday night.