57-Year-Old Woman Charged in Shooting Death of Journalist

A 57-year-old woman has been arrested in the shooting death last week in Northern Ireland of journalist Lyra McKee. Although initially two teens were detained in connection with the killing of the 29-year-old, who died Thursday night during rioting in Londonderry (aka Derry), they were later released without being charged, and now police say have charged the woman under the Terrorism Act, the Telegraph reports. Per the CBC, even though authorities believe there was just one person who actually pulled the trigger in the shooting of McKee, they also believe that person had "organizational support" during the rioting that pitted violent dissidents against the police.

And the organization behind that support seems to have stepped forward. "On Thursday night, following an incursion on the Creggan by heavily armed British crown forces which provoked rioting, the IRA deployed our volunteers to engage," the New IRA, a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army, tells the Irish News in a statement. "In the course of attacking the enemy, Lyra McKee was tragically killed while standing beside enemy forces." The group also offered "full and sincere apologies" to McKee's family and friends. The BBC notes McKee's death comes more than 20 years after the 1998 Good Friday peace accord that officially ended "The Troubles." The New IRA rejects that accord, contending Northern Ireland belongs to Ireland, an issue once again at the forefront thanks to Brexit. (More Lyra McKee stories.)