On the street, three women stood around a child in a buggy observing the scene dispassionately. "Probably people will say it was his own that done it," one said.
If this is peace, what is war?" asked another. They knew Frankie Curry, but not well, they said. "There will never be peace in this country, never," said the third woman, closing the conversation.
The sun was blazing down on Belfast. At the City Hall, thousands of people were cheerfully making their way back to mostly nationalist areas after the St Patrick's Day parade. At the Shankill it was another "white-tape" scene.
Frankie Curry's body was concealed in a security tent at waste ground on Malvern Way, off the Shankill Road. Forensic people in white overalls walked in and out of the tent. Police officers kept onlookers behind the white tape.
In the social club nearby the doors were shut, but you could clearly hear the hubbub of people talking and drinking. Those inside seemed indifferent to the scene outside.
First word was that republicans had come into the Shankill to kill Curry. After all, he was a nephew of the former UVF leader, Gusty Spence, had a long loyalist paramilitary pedigree and had served several prison terms.
He was linked to the Red Hand Defenders and would be a likely retaliatory target for the Red Hand Defenders' murder of Rosemary Nelson.
However, the modus operandi, and the muted reaction on the streets, pointed to local involvement. Republicans don't walk into the heart of the Shankill, pick out their victim, shoot him dead, and then run back into the same Shankill heartland, as did Mr Curry's killers.
Police said his killers were very selective - a friend walking with Mr Curry was unharmed.
Just an hour or so earlier, Mr Curry had been speaking to the Ulster Democratic Party politician Mr John White on the Shankill. He was just out of prison where he served a short sentence for a motoring offence and was, according to Mr White, who is a UDP prisoners' representative, inquiring about work. Although a long-standing loyalist, Curry was still in a sense in "enemy territory".
He was a former member of the Red Hand Commando which, with the UVF and UDA, declared a ceasefire in 1994, but had been dismissed for "treason". He subsequently sided with LVF leader Billy Wright and was opposed to the Belfast Agreement.
He was not welcome on the Shankill, where pro-agreement loyalists still hold sway.
