Mother watched shooting victim crawl away

A man in his 40s was shot through both ankles in the Culdaff Gardens area of Creggan the city on Monday night.

The shooting in Creggan is the latest incident in a worrying rise in the number of similar attacks in Londonderry, local MLA Gary Middleton has said.

A local mother, who asked not to be named, described her shock at opening her front door at around 10.30pm on Monday night to find a man crawling up the street with gunshot wounds in his ankles.

“A car came up the street and then I heard gunshots”, she said. “I looked out and no one seemed to be out in the street so I went out myself and the man was just crawling. I couldn’t believe it. The whole thing is mad. I just rang an ambulance for him and waited until it came along.

“The children were in bed so they wouldn’t have seen anything. They are fairly new houses in this street and I’ve been living here since they were built, about two years ago.

“Nothing like this has ever happened before. It’s all young children in this street. I couldn’t believe it when I seen him crawling. There didn’t seem to be a lot of blood at first but then I did see he was bleeding badly. I was shocked.

“He was still awake and all so I told him I was getting him an ambulance. It was just mad. You don’t want to see that in a street like this full of wee, young children. My children were in bed but this is the summer holidays and there could have been children out even at that time.”

DUP MLA Gary Middleton condemned the attack and said there has been a “worrying” rise in paramilitary style attacks in the city in recent times.

“Obviously this type of activity was never acceptable and people don’t want to see individuals taking the law into their own hands and they don’t want to see guns on the streets.

“Unfortunately it has now become more common that individuals take it upon themselves to inflict violence on other people. It has to be condemned.

“It certainly seems like there has been an increase. There is no doubt that there seems to be a rise in this type of activity. We thought this type of activity was confined to the past but unfortunately there seems to be some individuals. They need to be brought to justice.

“I would encourage anyone with information to contact the PSNI.”

A police spokesperson said: “At approximately 10.35pm, police received a report that a 40 year old man had been shot in both ankles in the area. It is believed that four masked men were involved in the shooting. The 40 year old man has been taken to hospital for treatment to his injuries which are not believed to be life threatening.”

Chief Inspector Gordon McCalmont said: “I would ask anyone with any information about this shooting to contact detectives at Strand Road Police Station on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference number 1403 of 29/08/16. Or if someone would prefer to provide information without giving their details, they can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers and speak to them anonymously on 0800 555 111.”