SHOT COP TARGETED IN 'GRUDGE'

Dissidents planned hit on top PSNI officer...and 'he may know gunmen'

-  JILLY BEATTIE, DAMIEN EDGAR and CONOR DOYLE

TOP cop John Caldwell was shot by dissidents with a grudge - and he may have known the gunmen, it is feared.

Sources said it wasn't simply an attempt to kill a PSNI officer, adding: "We believe there's a clear personal element to the attack. This was a hit on John.

Det Chief Insp Caldwell was "critical but stable" after being blasted in front of his son in Omagh. Three men have been arrested over Wednesday night's shooting.

COLLEAGUES of PSNI officer John Caldwell believe he has been the victim of a personal grudge that developed during his work as a senior detective.

Mr Caldwell remains under armed guard in hospital where he is in a critical but stable condition after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds on Wednesday night in Omagh.

He was standing at the boot of his car with his teenage son when two masked men opened fire inside the carpark of the Youth Sport Omagh complex.

Now the job of investigating his attempted murder has fallen to colleagues, many of whom have worked closely with the detective in the recent past.

And while they believe dissident republicans are behind the attack, they feel this was much more than the attempted murder of a random police officer. This was premeditated, planned and targeted.

One security source told the Mirror: “This wasn’t just a hit on a peeler, this was a hit on John himself.

“Targeted specifically because of the work he does and targeted because of the difficulties he poses for the people he seeks to bring to justice.

“We believe there’s a very clear personal element to this attack on John and we believe he would know his attackers at the very least, by name.