A man shot dead near Portadown, County Armagh, tonight is thought to have been the victim of Loyalist infighting. He has been named locally as Richard Jameson. He was shot by a lone gunman through the passenger window of his Isuzu Trooper at Derryletiff Road, about five miles outside the town. Police said that he was dead on arrival at Craigavon Area Hospital.
Both security and Loyalist sources described the dead man as the leader of the UVF in the area. However the killing was not sectarian and was part of an ongoing Loyalist feud in mid-Ulster between the UVF and the breakaway LVF. On December 27 last, the dead man was injured in a vicious fight which broke out in a social club in Portadown. That was on the second anniversary of the murder of LVF leader Billy Wright, who was killed by the Republican INLA in the Maze prison. David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party, which has links with the UVF, described the dead man as a great community worker. He blamed the killing on drug dealers masquerading as Loyalists.
