Former senior IRA figure gunned down in Belfast, Ireland

BELFAST, Northern Ireland, May 5 (UPI) -- A former senior IRA figure was shot dead in the streets of Belfast, Ireland, Tuesday morning as he walked to work, police say.

Gerard "Jock" Davison, 47, was shot several times, at least once in the back of the head, at about 9 a.m. near an office of the Markets Development Association, where he was employed as a local community worker.

Witnesses told the Guardian the shooting took place in front of several children who were walking to school, with one shouting, "Daddy, daddy," after the shots rang out.

Davison was formerly the Provisional Irish Republican Army's Belfast commander and a supporter of Sinn Féin, an Irish republican political party that advocated negotiations and peaceful political advancement over IRA militancy.

Davison was the most senior ex-IRA figure in support of Sinn Féin's peace process to have been killed since the IRA ceasefire of 1997, the Guardian reports.

Police say they do not believe Davison's killing was perpetrated by dissident republicans, nor do they believe it was sectarian. Rather, officers say, it may have come from within the nationalist community and possibly from those holding a longstanding grudge.

Davison was reportedly involved in a 2005 fight outside a Belfast pub that resulted in the beating and stabbing death of Robert McCartney, a 33-year-old father of two.

The high-profile killing gained international attention when McCartney's sisters blamed the IRA for the death and for tampering with witnesses and evidence.

Davison's uncle was charged with McCartney's murder but was later acquitted. No one has been convicted in the crime.