BELFAST (Reuters) – Seven men have been charged with the attempted murder of senior Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) detective John Caldwell, according to a police statement.
Caldwell was shot multiple times on February 22 while off-duty at a youth sports complex on the outskirts of Omagh as he was coaching youth sports.
The detective made his first public appearance since then at Hillsborough Castle on May 24 when he had an audience with King Charles who was on a visit to the province.
Two men aged 28, and five men aged 33, 38, 45, 47 and 72, have been charged with attempted murder.
“These charges are welcome news. I would like to thank the PSNI for their efforts and the progress they have made in the case,” Britain’s Northern Ireland minister Chris Heaton-Harris said on Twitter.
A 1998 peace deal largely ended three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, but police officers are still sporadically targeted by small splinter groups of mostly nationalist militants opposed to Britain’s rule over the region.
All seven men are expected to appear before Dungannon Magistrates Court on Monday.
The PSNI say the 38 and 45-year-olds are also charged with membership of a proscribed organisation, namely the IRA.
Three of the men, aged 28, 33 and 47, have also been charged with preparation of terrorist acts.
(Reporting by Graham Fahy and Amanda Ferguson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)