Loyalist murder target was threatened by RUC
By Ned Kelly
Two loyalist gunmen attempted to murder a Catholic community worker moments
after he left a young girl home in the loyalist Shankill area of Belfast at
around 11pm on Friday night.
The man, father of six 49-year-old Frank Petticrew, had just left the
14-year-old girl off to her home in Snugville Street after they attended a
cross-community horse riding event when the two loyalists opened fire. One
bullet hit the car door and others shattered the windows of a pub across
the road.
Last November, An Phoblacht reported that the RUC had attempted to recruit
Petticrew to act as informer and then threatened to have him killed by the
Red Hand Defenders when he refused. Of the RUC death threat, Petticrew
said: ``It seems their words have come true''.
Despite the RUC death threat, it is believed that Petticrew had been
dropping the young girl home for some time. Petticrew added: ``They were
obviously watching me for a while. Even though I had recently changed my
car they still knew it was me.''
Sinn Féin North Belfast Assembly member Gerry Kelly, who exposed the
original RUC death threat last year, dismissed claims that the attack was
the work of `fringe' loyalists. He said: ``All the signs point to one of the
mainstream loyalist organisations.''
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)