Omagh shooting: Principal explains pupils’ ordeal in witnessing gun attack on PSNI officer John Caldwell

Gunmen shot Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell in front of his young son in the attack at a sports complex in Omagh, Co Tyrone, on Wednesday evening. The off duty officer had been coaching football for young teenagers.

Mr Caldwell ran a short distance and fell to the ground where the attackers continued to fire at him as children ran in terror to get to safety, police have said.

Mr Caldwell remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital after the attack at the Youth Sports Centre.

Omagh High School Principal Christos Gaitatzis said about 15 of his pupils were at the centre at the time of the attack. A variety of clubs were using the grounds at the time for football and athletics.

He said it was "very, very difficult to describe how they feel this morning".

Education Authority counsellors and psychologists have been brought in to support the children.

He added: "We've tried to do our best this morning, initially through an assembly and then seeing the individuals and speaking with their parents at home. They need to feel that they have the support they need to talk to us."

Some of the affected pupils did not make it to school the morning after the attack but he spoke to them at home with their parents instead.

"It is very difficult because the children were just next to the person that was shot. They were right beside it," he told BBC Radio Ulster Talkback.

Two of his pupils were next to Mr Caldwell's son and helping them with sports equipment at his car.

"And they saw everything that happened when he was shot initially. Then they tried to run away from there as quickly as they could. It is absolutely shocking.

"It was not an attack only on a brilliant guy that was helping the kids in a coaching session there. It was an attack on youngsters that attend school from the ages 11 to 13. An absolutely inhumane, disgusting and heinous attack... they thought that they were going to a safe place to do a training session as they do every Wednesday night."

Mr Gaitatzis did not want to say he was angry. "I want to say that I'm actually in disbelief."

He contrasted the experience with the ethos they teach at his school.

"We have here an agenda of kindness in my school and this is what we will say to our pupils on a daily basis - that we need to be kind and caring towards each other.

"And what these pupils experienced last night is something completely different."

He was in disbelief because he came to a Northern Ireland a few years ago that was "completely different" to the one he used to watch on television thirty years ago.

"I've never come across anything like it in my three years here as a principal."

Fermanagh and South Tyrone UUP MLA Tom Elliott said he had known Mr Caldwell for years.

"He is a very down to earth officer who has proved his ability and achieved a high rank in the PSNI," he said.

"He has come up through the ranks and is still on first name terms with everyone that he knew before.

"I would say he is a good traditional police officer with traditional policing values."

He would have been involved in trying to apprehend organised criminals right across the area, the MLA said.

"Just like many within the community, I am extremely angry that this would be carried out on anybody and certainly on a police officer.

"And where it has happened just shows that these people have no regard whatsoever for the wider community."

But he added that people in the community know who the gunmen are.

"And I would ask that they push them out of their community and let the authorities know exactly who they are."

He believes it is still relevant that some politicians still justify and defend the murders of hundreds of police officers during the Troubles and that this attitude towards the past is also contributing to the support base which enables these types of attacks. "Of course it is," he said.

West Tyrone UUP MLA Tom Buchanan utterly condemned what he said was "a premeditated, planned, callous, murder attempt of a police officer when he was providing coaching for young children".

He added: "My thoughts and prayers are with the officer that he will make a full recovery and also with his wife and family.”

The attack was carried out by people who may be not too far away from Omagh, he believes.

"There is a responsibility now for the people living within these communities who know who these people are to root them out. There can be no hiding place for them now."

He personally has known Mr Caldwell for some ten years, and his parents.

"He is highly regarded by all sections of the community within the area. That is why this has caused so much anger and outrage.

"He is highly respected and very pleasant - a very helpful Individual. I was someone who had a lot of time for his family."

The attack will have had a major impact on children at the sports complex who were waiting for their parents to collect them, he added.

"There was one young person who saw the flashes of the gun fire. This is going to have a huge impact on the lives of those young people that were there."

Chief Executive Officer of Sport NI Antoinette McKeown also condemned the attack.

“Violent and brutal acts such as these are to be condemned in any circumstances, however to target a sporting coach in front of young people is simply abhorrent," she said.

“Sport would not exist without volunteers, and we value the diversity and contribution of every person who gives their time to enrich lives through sport. Sport is a powerful means of uniting people and we deplore this mindless attack on a valued member of our sporting community.

“We know the entire sporting community will be united in solidarity, and our thoughts are with the officer, and his family and colleagues at this difficult time.”