Kevin McDaid Murder - Update
Kevin McDaid murder - Update
Detectives from the PSNI’s Major Investigation Team, have made an appeal for information following the murder of a 49 years old man in Coleraine, County Londonderry. Kevin Brendan McDaid died as a result of a serious assault in the Somerset Drive area of Coleraine around 9.30pm on Sunday, 24 May. Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Superintendent David McConville, said Kevin died during an horrendous assault carried out by at least 15 people:
“Kevin had been in the area for some time following a televised football match. He was working with the community to help quell tensions when the match ended. While carrying out these duties, he was brutally attacked. Despite the efforts of one of our community police officers, who administered first aid, Kevin died. I have commenced a murder investigation . A second man who was also assaulted, remains critically ill in hospital and we are treating this incident as attempted murder,” said the detective.
Police have so far arrested twelve men and one 15 years old boy during this investigation. The boy and one other man have been released without charge. The detective appealed for witnesses to come forward:
“There were a lot of people around the area of Somerset Drive where a number of vicious assaults took place. Some had been in a local bar. It is to those people that I make a direct appeal. Please come and tell us what you know. Describe to us what you saw, or what you heard. You may not have seen the assault take place, or you may think the information you have is not important, but we still want to hear from you. Your assistance could bring us vital information that could help this murder enquiry. Please call us on 0845 600 8000 and ask to talk to detectives in Coleraine. Alternatively you can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111,” said Detective Superintendent McConville.
Assistant Chief Constable Alistair Finlay, said Brendan McDaid’s family have been deeply shocked by his death.
"Our thoughts are with his family who are understandably devastated. The police investigation has moved forward very swiftly, very robustly, and has had good co-operation from the community.
“If there is anyone out there who has any knowledge about the brutal murder of Brendan McDaid, we need them to contact police. We need your information to take this enquiry forward and to bring those responsible to justice. “
The Assistant Chief Constable also responded to a claim in the media that police did not respond fully at the scene.
"This is not something that we are aware of, but if anyone has information surrounding that I would ask them to come forward and share that information with us. Our understanding is that there were two Neighbourhood officers who were very quickly on the scene, and those officers moved to make an initial arrest of one of the main aggressors. Such was the hostility of the crowd that those officers had to withdraw from making that arrest and then move to render first aid. They were joined very quickly by two Neighbourhood officers, one of them was the Sergeant who had been speaking to Kevin 45 minutes earlier. He knew Kevin by name, and immediately rendered first aid - including mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and CPR - in attempt to save his life, which unfortunately he was unable to do.
"The suggestion that there were police officers there who didn't intervene when they could have done earlier is an allegation that we will fully explore. We don't have any understanding that that is the case, but if anyone has information about that we would want to know about it. The matter has been referred by the Police Service to the Police Ombudsman," he said.
