TWO MEN HAVE been arrested by detectives investigating the murder of David Black on the M1 Motorway in Armagh yesterday morning.
The PSNI said the men aged 31 and 44 were arrested in the Lurgan area early this morning and have been taken to Antrim Serious Crime suite for questioning.
Mr Black, who was a long-term officer with the Northern Ireland Prison Service and a member of the Orange Order, was shot dead on the M1 in Armagh as he drove to work in Maghaberry Prison.
Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Justice Minister Alan Shatter said that “you can assume that lines of inquiry are presently being followed by the PSNI and Gardaí Siochána” and that the murder was “absolutely reprehensible and barbaric”.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has condemned the murder of Mr Black, saying:
Those who committed this brutal act will rightly be condemned by all civilised and right-thinking people on this island who utterly reject such hideous and mindless violence.
President Michael D Higgins said he had spoke with Northern Ireland Minister for Justice David Ford and asked him to convey his sympathies to David Black’s family and colleagues.
Yesterday, Northern Ireland First Minister David Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness released a joint statement, appealing for help to catch the killers. They said an attack on any member of the NI Prison Service “is an attack on all of us”.
Today, the Taoiseach will meet with Robinson and McGuinness at the North South Ministerial Council meeting today. It is expected that the murder of David Black will be discussed at length.
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