A man shot dead in front of children in west Belfast on Tuesday night has been named as Raymond Johnston.

The victim, who was in his late 20s, was killed by a shotgun wound to chest at a house on the Poleglass estate around 8pm.

The man’s girlfriend was in the house at the time of the attack in Glenbawn Avenue.

Another man was shot dead on the same estate in October 2016. The armed vigilante group Republican Action Against Drugs admitted responsibility for killing 43-year-old Joe Reilly in nearby Glenwood Court.

The MP for West Belfast, Sinn Féin’s Paul Maskey, described the latest murder in his constituency as horrifying.

“It is a brutal attack that was carried out in front of young children,” he said. “This has to be condemned outright. There is no call for this, it is truly shocking and horrifying.”

The motive for the killing remains unclear, but there has been an upsurge in so-called punishment attacks by armed republican dissidents in north and west Belfast over the last two years.

