Danny McGurk was known on the Falls as a hard man but there isn't a lot anybody can do when confronted by two gunmen.
He was watching tv when the door-bell rang. His six kids must have been hysterical as their father lay fatally wounded in the hall. That memory will be with them for life.
The Real IRA hasn't claimed the shooting but its silence is an effective admission of guilt. I don't know whether the gunmen intended to kill.
The fact Danny was shot in the ankles indicates it was a 'punishment' attack gone wrong. Whatever happened, few would agree the Real IRA has any right to be dispensing 'justice' in the community.
But let's remember it usually isn't the Real IRA adopting this role. This is the first such attack by dissident republicans. They're the amateurs. The Provos have been at this stuff for years.
"There is a great sense of anger and outrage within west Belfast at the brutal and senseless murder of Danny McGurk," said Gerry Adams who condemned "gangsterism and thuggery".
Let's hope the gangsters and thugs who carried out 'punishment' attacks in Ardoyne and Coalisland within the past week don't think Gerry is referring to them.
Provos with guns, iron bars and baseball bats don't exactly like being challenged. Barney McDonald found out that. A hard-working Co Tyrone taxi driver, he stood up to the Provo 'constabulary when they threatened his son last year.
A few weeks later, Barney went to pick up a fare at a snooker club. Two men lay in wait. They blasted him with shotguns. Barney was well-liked locally but somehow Gerry Adams, or any other Sinn Féin representative, didn't articulate the "anger and outrage" at his "brutal and senseless murder".
Such strong, unambiguous language wasn't used either when Andy Kearney was taken from his New Lodge flat where he had been cradling his two-week old daughter. Andy had knocked out a north Belfast Provo who had threatened a friend's son.
The Provos shot him in the stairwell where he bled to death. Before fleeing the scene, they ripped out telephone wires and immobilised the lift. Those boys could teach the Real IRA a thing or two.
Perversely, the Provos are said to be "investigating" the Real IRA attack before considering "taking action". How do they, or Gerry Adams, manage to keep a straight face?
