Two off-duty PSNI officers failed to arrest teenage girl before she died – The Irish News

Two off-duty PSNI officers failed to stop a drunken teenager who was standing in the middle of a country road shortly before she was knocked down, an inquest heard.

Shannon McQuillan (19), from Dunloy, died after being hit by a van on Moneynick Road, near Toome in Co Antrim, in January 2018, shortly after leaving the back of an ambulance who took him to the hospital.

Her boyfriend Owen McFerran (21), from Ballymoney, was left fighting for his life after the crash, which happened early in the morning on the old main road from Derry to Belfast.

Coroner Joe McCrisken last week heard how Ms McQuillan was taken to hospital by ambulance after falling in a car park in Magherafelt, Co Derry, while leaving a local nightclub.

Ambulance staff then radioed police after an altercation involving Ms McQuillan and stopped at a bus stop near Toome to wait for their arrival.

A PSNI sergeant, who was one of three officers at the scene, last week denied that the alleged republican views of a teenage girl's family had any influence on the way he treated her.

At a hearing on Monday it emerged two off-duty officers failed to stop after seeing Ms McQuillan in the middle of the road while sharing a vehicle after a shift.

The court heard how a car driving in front of them had to break suddenly and stop briefly after Ms McQuillan tried to stop it.

When that car left, Ms McQuillan then moved in front of the car carrying the two PSNI officers, also forcing the driver to stop.

In a statement, one of the officers said the teen then hit the hood of the vehicle with an open palm “aggressively.”

She then gave the two police officers, who were wearing civilian clothes, the finger and shouted something before returning to the side of the road.

The officer said he then called 999 from his home phone “to report that there were people on the side of the road, obstructing vehicles and moving in front of oncoming vehicles”.

The officer said that due to “the time and location of the incident and the current threat to on-duty and out-of-province police officers, I was not satisfied to stop with this couple.

He added that he did not know who the couple was and “who else might have been nearby.”

The officer told the court he was concerned for his and his colleague's safety because they had “no means, other than the use of hazard lights, of informing other motorists of our stationary presence on an unlit rural road.”

The coroner also heard that the officers “wanted to identify a personal vehicle as that of a police officer due to the continued targeting of officers.”

In a statement, the second police officer, who was driving the vehicle, told the inquest he honked once and pointed to the side of the road after stopping.

He said he did not stop with the couple “for several reasons”, adding that he was “concerned about the motive at the time for stopping passing motorists”.

The officer added that he was “also aware of the current threat to off-duty police officers in the province.”

“I did not wish to identify myself (the other police officer) or my personal vehicle to anyone…the fact that we were serving the police,” he said.

At Monday's hearing, the driver of the van that collided with Ms McQuillan also gave evidence.

He explained how he saw “a white face”, which he believed was Mr McFerran's, which “came out of nowhere” before impact.

After seeing two people lying on the ground, he called the police.

Later in the hearing, Mr. McCrisken revealed that a number of forensic pathologists had conducted reconstructions of “what might have happened.”

“The bottom line of the forensic report is that there was absolutely nothing you could have done that morning,” he told the driver.

“And unless there is additional evidence, which seems unlikely, that will be my conclusion at the end of this investigation.”