The murder of 43-year-old Jim Donegan in west Belfast in December has been featured on BBC’s Crimewatch Roadshow Live programme.
Detectives now believe that the same man tried to murder Jim five days earlier.
Today they have released new CCTV footage which shows the man waiting outside Jim’s son’s school for 20 minutes on Thursday, November 29.
A republican element is a main line of enquiry, specifically the INLA.
Mr Donegan was murdered on December 4 as he sat in his car outside a school on the Glen Road, waiting to pick up his 13-year-old son. The cold blooded execution was carried out by a lone gunman in front of hundreds of children and their parents.
The Senior Investigating Officer from the PSNI’s Major Investigation Team investigating the murder of Jim Donegan has made an appeal on Crimewatch.
Detective Chief Inspector Peter Montgomery said over three months have passed since his cold blooded murder.
“Jim’s family deserve to have answers and this dangerous gunman needs to be removed from our streets but I need the public’s help to do this,” he said.
“Today I am releasing new CCTV footage which I believe shows the gunman, five days before Jim’s death, waiting for him to arrive to collect his son with hundreds of innocent children nearby. Jim was not collecting his son that day, but I believe that if he had appeared he would have been murdered at this point,” he added.
Detective Chief Inspector Peter Montgomery said the investigation into the callous execution of Jim Donegan continues to progress and a republican element is a main line of enquiry, specifically the INLA.
“Do you recognise the man in the CCTV footage? He may be late 30s to early 40s, approximately 5ft 8” and may walk with a limp or may have an existing medical condition that impacts on his walking style. This is someone who thought it was acceptable to put the lives of countless children at risk and murder Jim – please help me put him before the courts,” he added.
He said on the day of Jim’s murder, Tuesday 4 December, it’s believed the gunman emerged from Clonelly Avenue onto Glen Road around 3.10pm.
He then walked past children at around 3.15pm, calmly activated the pedestrian crossing, crossed the road and walked up to Jim’s car, firing his weapon eight times before fleeing the scene.
He was wearing a high-vis hip length yellow jacket with ‘security’ on the back, dark bottoms with a grey hat or hood and he was carrying a dark bag over his shoulder which police believe contained the gun.
“I want to hear from you if you were in the area at the time. Did you see the gunman? Did he go into a house afterwards or get into a waiting car? Do you have any dashcam footage? Perhaps you have heard anyone talking about the killing? Please come forward with any information that you have.
“The family have been left devastated and hundreds of children and families who witnessed the murder have also been left traumatised. The callous actions of the gunman will have catastrophic psychological effects on them all.
“I would appeal to anyone with information to contact police on 101,” added the Detective Chief Inspector.