THE toll of deaths following vicious assaults on streets in the North reached three in three days yesterday when a young tennis player from north Belfast, Gareth Parker (23), died in hospital from injuries received on the Antrim Road at the weekend.
A Chinese businessman, Mr Simon Tang (28), also died yesterday after being attacked by a gang outside his takeaway restaurant in Carrickfergus late on Sunday.
The RUC was already engaged in a murder hunt following the death of Mr Niall Donovan (28), a bank official, of Greystown Park, Belfast, who was found on a roadside in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, early on Sunday morning with serious head injuries and stab wounds to the stomach. He died 14 hours later at the South Tyrone Hospital.
Yesterday morning Gareth Parker, ranked number five among the North's tennis players, lost his fight for life in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. He had been on a life support machine since he was found on the Antrim Road in the north of the city late on Friday.
Police believe he was beaten by a gang after he left the nearby Shaftesbury Inn and was then struck by a passing car as he lay on the road.
The RUC said it was following a definite line of inquiry and, appealed for information from people who had been in the vicinity.
Mr Parker, who lived in Dublin, was born in Belfast and had returned there to visit his parents before setting off to compete in a tournament in France.
Mr Tang, who was married with two children, aged two years and two months, died in the same hospital ward as Mr Parker yesterday.
He had been subjected to a brutal attack by a masked gang wielding baseball bats as he left his business premises on the Woodburn Road in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, after locking up late on Sunday night.
The motive for this attack appears to have been robbery. His brother in law, Mr Simon Lee, said Mr Tang had lost his life "because of a couple of hundred pounds".
The first victim of a weekend of violent assaults, Mr Donovan, was buried yesterday in Dungannon. Police have appealed for witnesses to help them trace his movements in Dungannon between 2.30 a.m and 4.30 a.m. on Sunday morning.