Freelance investigative journalist Lyra McKee was fatally shot in April 2019 during riots and a police operation in Northern Ireland. No one has been held accountable for her murder.
McKee, 29, was shot in the head on April 18, 2019, while she was observing riots in the Creggan area of Derry (also known as Londonderry). She was taken to hospital but died of her injuries.
McKee had been filming the riots on her phone and was standing close to a police vehicle when she was shot. Police said they believed the gunman was aiming at officers. According to news reports, the New IRA paramilitary group claimed responsibility for McKee’s murder.
The journalist’s death sent shockwaves through Northern Ireland; her funeral was attended by then Irish President Michael D Higgins and British Prime Minister Theresa May. The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) described McKee as one of the most promising journalists in Northern Ireland.
NUJ Assistant General Secretary Séamus Dooley, said he had “no doubt that it was that commitment (to journalism) which led to her presence on the streets of the Creggan last night, observing a riot situation in the city." According to news reports, McKee had tweeted images and commentary on the riot and spoken with a journalist colleague on the street.
On July 3, 2026, after a trial that lasted almost two years, three men were acquitted of McKee’s murder. Paul McIntyre, Peter Cavanagh and Jordan Devine had been charged with assisting or encouraging the gunman who killed McKee, but Justice Patricia Smyth, sitting at Belfast Crown Court, said evidence was insufficient to secure a conviction. The trial – which also involved five other defendants charged in relation to the riots – did not include the gunman.
Smyth said: “Lyra McKee’s murder was an act of senseless violence. The gunman has never been brought to the court and the evidence against those accused of assisting or encouraging has fallen short of that required for conviction. I wish to acknowledge the family and friends of Lyra McKee who have endured a protracted trial which has brought them little if any comfort or relief, and I regret that.”
Outside the court, McKee's sister Nichola Corner said the justice system "has completely failed Lyra, has failed our family and has failed Northern Ireland."
She said: "Today has come as a complete and utter shock to us as a family. We will not go down with this. This is not over. Lyra said:'if you're going to go down, go down fighting.' And I can tell you right now that every one of my family will, because we do this for Lyra. She deserves justice."
In 2022, Niall Sheerin from Derry was sentenced to seven years in prison for possessing the gun that killed McKee - a Hammerli X-Esse pistol which police found during searches in 2020. The court noted, however, that the prosecution had not established that Sheerin was aware of the gun’s specific history, and that he was not sentenced in connection with McKee’s murder.