Injured police officer ‘a hero’
The PSNI Chief Constable has branded the officer critically injured in a dissident republican bomb blast in County Antrim a “modern-day hero”.
Peadar Heffron, 33, remains in a critical condition in hospital after a device exploded under his blue Alfa Romeo car outside Randalstown on Friday.
Chief Constable Matt Baggott paid tribute to Constable Heffron, the Irish-speaking captain of the PSNI’s gaelic football team, and his involvement in the local community.
“He is a modern-day hero, he is someone who has stepped out, someone who is doing the right things for everybody,” he said.
“What a fantastic officer he is and what a great man of courage, man who is doing all the right things in the community, saving people’s lives and helping people day in day out.
“I want to pay him that tribute today as he lies seriously injured in hospital as a result of this abhorrent attack.”
Mr Baggott said the community wanted their police officers to be part of their life.
“If that means becoming involved with the Gaelic Athletic Association, helping people to have a conversation with us using the Irish language, respecting people in every walk of life and every community – then that’s exactly what the Police Service and police officers should be about,” he said.
Constable Heffron, who got married six months ago, had just left home to start work in west Belfast when the car bomb went off.
Police have launched a fresh appeal for information about the attack.
“Detectives want to hear from anyone who was in the Milltown Road area over the past few weeks in the evening or in the early hours of the morning, perhaps jogging or walking dogs,” a police spokesman said.
“If they noticed any suspicious activity, particularly in relation to vehicles, then police want to hear from them.”
The chief constable said he was confident the attack would not dissuade other recruits from a nationalist background from joining the service.
He said the dissidents remain a small but dangerous group.
“We’ve always said the situation is severe,” he said at police headquarters in Belfast.
“We have the resources to deal with it but what we need is more information all the time from the public and more support and more encouragement.”
Shocked neighbours rushed to help the injured officer, whose car careered sideways on the slippery Milltown Road at around 6.30am on Friday, half a mile from where he lived.
The explosion happened two miles from the Massereene Army barracks, where two soldiers just about to leave for Afghanistan were shot dead by the Real IRA last March.
Sappers Mark Quinsey, 23, and Patrick Azimkar, 21, were gunned down as they collected a pizza delivery outside the gates of the base.
Detective Chief Superintendent Derek Williamson, who is heading the police investigation, urged people in the area to come forward if they noticed anything suspicious.
