WATCH 'We had to shield him with our coats - to protect pupils from seeing what we were seeing' principal describes horror aftermath of fatal shooting outside her school
Teacher was among those first on the scene as man is gunned down in West Belfast
A head teacher described today the moment immediately after a man was gunned down outside her school in west Belfast.
Jim Donegan was killed after being shot multiple times as he waited in his Porsche car to pick up his son at St Mary’s Grammar School on Glen Road.
Fiona Crooks, the school’s acting principal branded the scene “horrendous”.
In an interview with our reporter, Sasha Wylie (see link below), she said:
“We were the first ones on the scene,” she said. “It was horrendous – personally for me and the other members of staff and for the pupils who did start to come out onto the road.
“The paramedics hadn’t arrived, the police hadn’t arrived so we were with the man at that time and we had to shield him with our coats and our cardigans at that particular time because we were conscious that some of our boys had come out onto the road and they were starting to walk past and we wanted to protect them from what we were witnessing.
“We wanted to protect them as best we could.”
Meanwhile, the school is closed today but is offering counselling for pupils.
Police are still hunting the gunman who was wearing a high-visibility vest with the word security emblazoned on the back.
He left the scene on foot.