Mark McNeill

Taximan shot dead in attack at depot

By Una Bradley
and Jonathan Turner

A WEST BELFAST taxi driver was shot dead last night in the car park of the depot where he worked. The victim, named locally as Mark McNeill, was shot up to six times beside his taxi in the car park of Apollo Taxis on the Shaw’s Road at around 6.45.
The father of five, from Dalebrook Park in west Belfast, was taken by ambulance to the Royal Victoria Hospital where he died a short time later.
Last night Assistant Chief Constable Bill Stewart said police were satisfied the motive for the shooting was not sectarian.
Condemning the killing, he added that a motive had not yet been established.
But it is understood one theory is the murder was a paramilitary style shooting that “went wrong.” Early this morning there were no indications that loyalists were involved.
A teenage girl who witnessed the shooting said two gunmen wearing hooded tops approached the victim, who was in his early 30s, as he was getting out of his car.
She saw the gunmen push Mr McNeill against railings and shoot him in the legs and back. The victim made an attempt to run and was shot again.
He struggled to his feet a final time and was shot yet again, she said.
According to staff at the depot, Mr McNeill had been working with the firm less than a month. They described him as a “quiet, hardworking man, who kept himself to himself”.
“I only ever saw him once, he hardly ever came into the depot,” one woman said.
“He was a very quiet guy who sat out in the car park all the time.”
Last night the victim’s neighbours were extremely distressed to learn of the shooting.
One said: “He had only started working a few weeks ago, and he was out cleaning that car every day. His family are ordinary, decent people and he was never involved in anything political.”
The man is understood to have separated from his wife, who lived with the couple’s children in the lower Falls area.
Neighbours said Mr McNeill stayed at a flat he rented in Glengoland when he was not at his Dalebrook family home. Another man who worked in the taxi depot said he could think of no reason why Mr McNeill would be targeted.
“To shoot someone like that, on the front of a busy road, and during a ceasefire; it’s an absolute disgrace, they’ve got a real cheek.”
Last night, SDLP councillor Alex Attwood urged people not to “rush to any judgment” and to remain calm. He said: “While it is not clear yet, this may yet prove not to be sectarian in nature. This is a time for moderation, not hysteria and to await further judgment.”
Mr McNeill is survived by his mother Eileen, father Joe, two brothers and three sisters.

Cabbie killed over grudge says family

Brother calls on group to admit death
By Liz Trainor
 

THE brother of a west Belfast taxi driver shot dead on Friday evening claimed yesterday that his murder was sanctioned by a leading member of the INLA because of a “personal grudge.”
Father-of-five Mark McNeill, from Helenswood Court off the Stewartstown Road, was shot six times in the backyard of Apollo Taxis on the Shaw’s Road.
Eyewitnesses said that the 32-year-old, who had been working for the firm for less than a month, was ambushed by two masked gunmen as he got out of his taxi.
He was shot a number of times in the legs and chest and died before reaching the Royal Victoria Hospital. Two men are still being questioned in connection with the murder.
But last night his brother, who did not wish to be named, said that the family were “extremely angry” at the INLA’s efforts to distance itself from the murder.
The man, who admitted his brother was a former member of the INLA, said he had feared for his life because of a long-running internal feud over leadership of the organisation.
But he said his brother had been given assurances that his life was not in danger only months before taking the job as taxi driver.
“We might have believed it had something to do with the feud but various sources have told us that this had nothing to do with it.
“It was a grudge over a personal thing and involved an INLA man.
“But whatever the reason, the INLA was behind this attack and should come out and admit it,” he said.
The family claim that their nightmare has been made worse by reports in a number of Sunday newspapers linking Mr McNeill with drugs and under-age sex.
The dead man’s brother said the family believe it is part of a campaign to smear the dead man’s name.
“We are completely gutted by these allegations and believe it is orchestrated to blacken Mark’s name.
“We were told that press reports might have been bad and expected him to have been branded a drugs dealer. But this is just disgusting.
“It’s bad enough what they did without this,” he said.
Last night the INLA political wing, the IRSP, said the movement resented the “wild, unsubstantiated charges” that it was involved in the murder.
The statement said that the INLA had a history of claiming responsibility for its actions and would have admitted the murder if carried out by the organisation.

MURDER VICTIM... relatives of murder victim Mark McNeill carry his coffin to St Michael The Archangel church yesterday Pictures: Brendan Murphy

Irish News, 22nd April 1998

Priest condemns taxi man’s killers

By Nevin Farrell
 

THE killers of west Belfast man Mark McNeill have blood on their hands and no excuse can justify his murder, a priest told mourners yesterday.
Father-of-five Mr McNeill (32), from Helenswood Court in the Stewartstown Road area, was shot six times on Friday night as he waited in a car at his workplace, Apollo Taxis, on Shaw’s Road.
No group has yet claimed the killing of Mr McNeill who was a former INLA member, but family members believe his slaying was the result of a “grudge” over a personal matter by a leading member of the organisation.
At his funeral at St Michael’s on the Finaghy Road yesterday, Fr Hilary Armstrong said “no excusing words spoken by the perpetrators of his death can even in the slightest way justify their action. They have the blood of Mark McNeill on their hands”.
He condemned those who ordered, planned and carried out the murder and said “they stand indicted not only by all of us but also by God”.
Fr Armstrong contrasted the visit he made to the McNeill home on Saturday with another in the parish and said that in one case a man had died after a long and happy life and, although there was an air of sadness, a sense of joy also pervaded at a full and complete life.
In contrast, said the priest, there was trauma in the McNeill house as the “lifeless body of Mark, a vigorous looking man” lay surrounded by his wife Anne and five children ­ Paul, Denise, Daniel, Ryan and Mark.
Denise is soon to receive Confirmation and Mark will receive his First Communion in a few weeks time but their father won’t be there to witness what are big events in every Catholic family.
Fr Armstrong urged mourners to pray for Mark’s killers and said an integral part of their prayer was motivated by the fact that his death wasn’t caused by an accident or hidden illness but by “crime and the grave sin of murderers”.
Five children are left without a father and, in a poignant scene as the cortege left St Michael’s for the City Cemetery yesterday morning, it was break time at St John the Baptist girls’ school beside the church.
As youngsters laughed and played and jumped over a large skipping rope, a few feet away there was no laughter and light heartedness for the McNeill children ­ just sadness and tears. A large wreath inscribed ‘Daddy’ said it all.
Mourners included former west Belfast SDLP MP Joe Hendron who was the McNeill family doctor. Sympathy messages included one from Apollo Taxis.