Fresh bloodstains marked the spot where 51-year-old journalist Martin O'Hagan was killed last night in a drive-by shooting. He had been walking home from a night out with his wife, who was uninjured.
He was five doors away from his home in the largely Protestant Westfield Gardens area of Lurgan, Co Armagh. Rain swept the scene. Around the blood, there was a dry patch of ground in the rough shape of a man's body.
Local RUC Superintendent Ian Chapman told reporters that several shots were fired and that stray rounds had struck the houses behind the couple.
The journalist's wife was in a severe state of shock. Two sisters heard the shots ring out at 10.30 p.m. The area on the Tandragee Road was sealed off by the RUC.
A forensics team was present at the scene where Mr Hagan's body lay covered. Half a mile away, on Glenavaon Lane, the remains of a burned-out car could be seen beside some waste ground. The number plate of the four-door saloon had been scorched off. The RUC believe this was the car which had been driven by the killers.
Journalists at the scene expressed their shock and outrage at the death of a colleague and speculated about the motive for the shooting.
There were suggestions that the dissident Loyalist Volunteer Force may have executed Mr O'Hagan after he wrote a number of unfavourable articles about the organisation.
A local woman, Ms Elizabeth Little, whose daughters had heard the shots, said it was a "terrible, terrible" incident.
"You would think after America that these people would wise up. It's sad, really sad." She said her daughters, aged 14 and 16, were trying to come to terms with what they had heard.
The girls had been watching a video at the time. They had been crying. "We just kept saying why?" said the 16-year-old. Her mother said she had told her Mr O'Hagan had been killed because he was a Catholic.
The atmosphere was tense as police arrived at the scene. Local youths began to berate the RUC and squabble amongst one another.
Mr Jim McDowell, Northern Editor of the Sunday World, said he was "devastated" at the murder of his colleague. He travelled to Lurgan to comfort the murdered man's widow.
He told PA News: "He was a journalist who never stood back in his life. If there were issues to be addressed, then he did it.
"I was not aware he was under any threat at this time. He never talked about that. But, obviously, as a fearless journalist and a secretary of the NUJ in Belfast, an attack on someone of his stature is an attack on the freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
"This newspaper has suffered many threats in the past and everyone is shattered."