Police hunting the killers of a 60-year-old financial adviser in the north were today examining a partially burnt-out car abandoned a few miles from his home.
Father-of-four Geoff Kerr was gunned down after opening his front door to a caller last night.
His wife and one of their sons were in the house in Templepatrick, Co Antrim, when the killers struck.
Mr Kerr, who ran a mortgage advisory business in Ballymena, Co Antrim, was a member of the Ulster Unionist Party which he joined last year.
As police sought to establish a motive for the killing, the area around the property in the Lylehill Road area of the village was sealed off while forensic experts carried out an inch-by-inch examination of the murder scene.
A few miles away police were also examining a fire-damaged car outside Glenavy, close to the shore of Lough Neagh, which they believed the killers used in their getaway.
Detectives appealed for information from anyone who saw a dark coloured saloon with a number of men on board in the Templepatrick area between 9.00pm and 10.30 pm last night.
South Antrim MP the Rev William McCrea branded it a “dastardly murder”.
The Democratic Unionist said: “A family has been robbed of a father and husband. Without equivocation I want to unreservedly condemn this dastardly murder.”
He said he wanted to make an appeal to the community for anyone with information to contact the police.
Mr McCrea said that, after talking to police chiefs, the involvement of dissident republicans was not thought to be a leading line of inquiry.
But he said: “Nothing can be ruled out, nothing should be ruled out but, irrespective of who was responsible, we have got to catch them.
“We have got to take these killers off the streets of Northern Ireland and we have got to ensure people can live in peace and tranquillity without the threat of this happening.”
SDLP MLA Tommy Burns said residents had been left shocked by the murder on their doorsteps.
He said: “This kind of shooting has to be condemned. It brings you back to the bad old times.”
PA