A red Toyota Carina car, with the passenger door wide open, was still parked outside the offices of the Enterprise Taxi company on the Ormeau Road last night as people gathered at the scene of the North's latest murder.
Taximan Mr Larry Brennan had been sitting in the car when two gunmen shot him four times at point-blank range at 7.20 p.m. They then ran down a side street to a waiting vehicle.
It was a familiar scene on the upper Ormeau Road in south Belfast, a generally mixed but increasingly Catholic area, and regarded as a flashpoint during the Troubles. White tape closed off streets and soldiers in full combat gear stood at every street corner. Forensic experts moved in to examine the scene as a section of the Ormeau Road and adjoining streets were sealed. A policeman made the now familiar comment to waiting reporters: it was yet "another senseless killing".
A restaurant two doors from the taxi company's offices, where a number of people had been eating at the time of the shooting, was quickly evacuated. The proprietors of fast-food restaurants in the immediate area were also asked to close. There were reports in the area of the two gunmen being seen in a takeaway food outlet shortly before the shooting, and of a call made to the company asking specifically for Mr Brennan.
Onlookers expressed dismay that the North seemed to be heading back "to the bad old days".
"You're afraid for the young people. If they go out now, you don't know if they're going to come back again or not," said one woman. Dr Alisdair McDonnell, an SDLP councillor in Belfast and a friend of Mr Brennan, described him as a "very decent, very kind, very generous individual". Dr McDonnell said he believed the UDA had played a "significant role" in the killing and in other recent murders in Belfast, rather than the LVF.
"I am horrified and numbed that a guy who was a friend and a political supporter of mine could basically be targeted and slaughtered like this," he said.
Another friend said: "Larry was 17 stone and over 6 feet tall, but he was one of the gentlest men I every knew. He wouldn't have hurt a fly. He was a kind, caring person. He would drive the pensioners to the shop and to the doctor's and wouldn't take a penny from them."