Omagh police shooting: Disturbing echoes of past in John Caldwell attack

John Caldwell, seen here in 2020, was shot multiple times

It's almost 25 years since the peace agreement which largely ended the Troubles was signed, but in Omagh today there are disturbing echoes of the past.

It seems that the more the details of this attack emerge, the more horrifying the picture is.

Det Ch Insp John Caldwell, a husband and father, had been coaching an under-15 football team and was shot because he was a detective.

He was putting footballs into his car with his son when two men approached him and opened fire.

He ran for his life, but was shot.

He fell down and the gunmen continued to fire at him.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said children ran in "sheer terror" as the attack unfolded.

• Who is the detective shot in Omagh attack?

• Timeline of Irish dissident republican activity

Det Ch Insp Caldwell has a high profile in Northern Ireland and has led a number of investigations into organised crime and dissident republican paramilitaries.

The focus of the police investigation is the dissident republican group known as the New IRA, thought to be the largest and the most active of the armed groups that oppose the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Those organisations mainly grew out of splinter groups from the Provisional IRA during the peace process which took shape in the 1990s.

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.

Their activities have been sporadic and often undermined by the security services, but groups like the New IRA continue to target members of the police service.

Attacks, particularly attacks of this nature, are relatively rare and had been that way in recent years.

But the police have always been very clear that they still pose a threat to officers' lives and the events of last night demonstrate just how real that threatened.

An armed police officer on duty near the sports complex in Omagh where John Caldwell was shot

Speaking earlier, Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan said all PSNI officers worked against a "backdrop of substantial threats".

Police officers in Northern continue to take take steps to protect their personal security.

For example it is relatively well known that it is commonplace for officers to check underneath their cars for bombs before driving.

The last police officer who was murdered in Northern Ireland was Constable Ronan Kerr and he was killed by a booby trap bomb underneath his car and that happened here in Omagh in 2011.