A handgun found during police searches in Derry last weekend is the weapon used to kill journalist Lyra McKee, police have confirmed.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said after forensic tests on the Hammerli X-Esse pistol they have established it was the gun that fired the fatal shots that killed the 29-year-old reporter during riots in Derry last year.
The anti-peace process dissident republican group the New IRA was behind the shooting in the city’s Creggan area in which McKee died.
The PSNI said confirmation that the pistol discovered during two days of searches over a site covering 38 acres in Derry marked “a significant moment in the investigation” into the New IRA killing.
Det Supt Jason Murphy, the senior investigation officer on the case, said one line the PSNI was pursuing was that the gun had been stolen “some time ago”.
He said several New IRA figures were involved in producing the weapon on the night the journalist was killed, when the terror group fired on police lines during disturbances in the Creggan area.
“I know who they are and the public know who they are and I also know who the gunman is,” Dt Supt Murphy said.
The senior PSNI officer said he was “grateful and relived” to learn that police now have the murder weapon.
He added: “For the New IRA the net is tightening. One positive result will have significant consequences for the New IRA.”
Paul McIntyre, from Derry, is currently being held in Maghaberry prison charged with murdering Lyra McKee. The 52-year-old denies the charges.
Lyra McKee’s partner, Sarah Canning, and her family have been informed about the discovery of the murder weapon, the PSNI confirmed.
The pistol was discovered along with a fully primed bomb which the PSNI believe was planned to have been used to murder police officers. Alongside the bomb, police found command wire for triggering bombs and a quantity of ammunition.
