Detectives investigating the murder of a 28-year-old man in front of his 24-year-old partner in their home in the Waterside area of Derry early yesterday morning are investigating the possibility that it was a so-called contract killing.
Brian James McGlynn was shot several times in the upper body when two gunmen burst into the first-floor bedroom of his Fountain Hill home just before 4am and opened fire on him.
Mr McGlynn's partner, Jennifer Cowley, escaped injury but was later treated for shock in Altnagelvin Hospital.
The victim, who was originally from Strabane, Co Tyrone, worked as a doorman in several nightclubs in Derry. He had several criminal convictions for assaults but no paramilitary related convictions.
The weekend before his murder Mr McGlynn was working at a nightclub near his home when doormen disarmed a man carrying an imitation firearm. The police are trying to establish if there is a link between that incident and his murder yesterday morning.
The detective leading the police investigations, Chief Insp Jeff Smyth from the PSNI's Major Investigations Team, described the killing as "a well-planned and well-executed cold-blooded and ruthless murder".
He said that after the shooting Mr McGlynn's killers were driven away from the scene by an accomplice.
"They escaped in a green coloured Vauxhall Cavalier car. We have reported sightings of the car being driven along the top deck of Craigavon Bridge and turning into Abercorn Road.
"It was daylight at the time. We want to hear from anyone who saw this car.
"On the night of his murder, Mr McGlynn and his girlfriend had been watching television . . . in their two-up two-down terrace house in Fountain Hill. Just before 4am the front door was kicked in.
"The noise awoke Mr McGlynn from his bed but as he approached the bedroom door the two gunman burst in and shot him several times in the upper body in front of his girlfriend. She is understandably still in deep trauma in Altnagelvin Hospital."
Chief Insp Smyth said the police were keeping an open mind on the motive for the murder. "His girlfriend should, at such a young age, not have had to witness this brutal killing and I am determined to bring Mr McGlynn's killers to justice. My sympathy goes out to her and to Mr McGlynn's family," he said.
He said that bullets recovered at the scene would be forensically examined to determine if the weapons had been used before.