LONDON (AP) — Police in Northern Ireland said Friday they are searching for multiple suspects in the fatal shooting of a journalist during overnight rioting in the city of Londonderry. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said 29-year-old journalist and author Lyra McKee was shot and killed, probably by a stray bullet, during rioting in the city's Creggan neighborhood. It said the dissident group, the New IRA, was most likely responsible. Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said a gunman fired a number of shots at police during the unrest Thursday evening. "We believe this to be a terrorist act," he said. "We believe it has been carried out by violent dissident republicans." Hamilton said the force's assessment "is that the New IRA are most likely to be the ones behind this and that forms our primary line of inquiry." McKee was a rising talent who had written eloquently about the challenges of coming out as gay in Northern Ireland. Her partner, Sara Canning, told a vigil that McKee's amazing potential had been snuffed out. "It has left so many friends without their confidante," she said. Canning said the senseless murder "has left me without the love of my life, the woman I was planning to grow old with." A murder investigation has been launched but there have been no arrests yet. Police appealed for calm to prevail over the long Easter holiday weekend. Speaking in Dublin, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said the people of Ireland and Northern Ireland had chosen peace and cooperation 21 years ago and will not be "dragged into the past" by political violence. The New IRA is a small group who reject the 1998 Good Friday agreement that marked the Irish Republican Army's embrace of a political solution to the long-running violence known as "The Troubles" that claimed more than 3,700 lives. The group is also blamed for a Londonderry car bombing that did not cause any injuries in January. It is regarded as the largest of the splinter dissident groups still operating and has been linked to several other killings in the past decade. Story continues Deputy Chief Constable Stephen Martin said Friday that police believe more than one person was involved in the shooting. "We certainly believe there was more than one person who was involved in this last night. Obviously only one person pulled the trigger but there was more than one person," he said. He said the violence started after police entered the area to search for weapons and that the gunman was aiming at policemen when the rioting intensified. "The full and total responsibility for Lyra McKee's death lies with the organization that sent someone out with a gun," he said. Londonderry Mayor John Boyle said the city was united in mourning McKee's death. "I have known her since she was 16 years old," he said. "She was bright, she was warm, she was witty. But most of all she was an outstanding individual, a great friend to so, so many people in this city in the short time that she was with us." There has been an increase in tensions in Northern Ireland in recent months with sporadic violence, much of it focused in Londonderry, also known as Derry. McKee rose to prominence in 2014 with a moving blog post — "Letter to my 14 year old self " — describing the struggle of growing up gay in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. In the post, she described the shame she felt at 14 as she kept the "secret" of being gay from her family and friends and the love she eventually received when she was finally able to reveal it. McKee had recently signed a contract to write two books. Hours before her death, she tweeted a photo of the riot with the words: "Derry tonight. Absolute madness."<doc-sep>(CNN) A prominent young journalist was killed during a night of rioting in Londonderry on Thursday, in what police in Northern Ireland have described as a "terrorist incident." Dissident republicans are believed to be responsible for the death of Lyra McKee, 29, who was shot during violent unrest in the Creggan area of the city, according to police. Images from the scene showed cars alight as a crowd threw fireworks and petrol bombs at emergency vehicles. The city -- which is referred to by Irish nationalists as Derry and British unionists as Londonderry -- is a short drive from the border with the Republic of Ireland. McKee was standing close to a police vehicle when she was wounded by a single gunman firing shots into a residential area. She died soon after from her injuries, assistant chief constable Mark Hamilton told reporters Friday. Police do not know if she was working as a journalist at the time, or was in the city for personal reasons. During a news conference on Friday, Hamilton described the death of McKee as "horrendous and unjustified" and appealed for calm. Overnight he announced that police were treating the shooting as a "terrorist incident" and had launched a murder inquiry. McKee, according to literary agents Janklow & Nesbit UK, was born in Belfast, and had written for a number of publications, including The Atlantic and Buzzfeed News. In 2016, she was named as one of Forbes Magazine's 30 under 30 in media in Europe. She is the first journalist to be killed in the United Kingdom since 2001, according to nonprofit organization the Committee to Protect Journalists. Hamilton confirmed that police suspect the shooting was carried out by dissident republicans, namely the New Irish Republican Army (IRA). 'Orchestrated violence' Thursday's unrest in Derry comes in advance of Easter weekend, during which republicans mark the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, considered among the most important dates in the struggle for Irish independence. Hamilton said police had been in the area carrying out searches on "violent dissident republicans" who they believed were storing firearms and explosives for a number of planned attacks. They were concerned the weapons could have been used over the Easter weekend in the city. According to Hamilton, a crowd gathered just after 9 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) on Thursday and over 50 petrol bombs were thrown at officers during the "orchestrated violence." Two vehicles were hijacked and set on fire, he said. "Police didn't use any force last night. All the violence was directed towards us," Hamilton said. At around 11 p.m. (6 p.m. ET), there were around 100 people in the area, including young people and members of the media. The gunman fired a number of shots, Hamilton said. Police patrol the scene during Thursday night's violence. Witness recounts moment gunman struck Journalist Leona O'Neill was standing next to McKee as the clock struck 11. She told CNN it was around then that the riot took a more "sinister turn." O'Neill detailed how a masked gunman emerged from the street corner and fired "indiscriminately up the street towards police vehicles but also towards a group of people who were just watching what was happening in their street." "The gunman was just pointing the gun around the corner," O'Neill said. "The amount of smoke there -- the fire and flames coming from the police vehicles -- he could not have seen anything of that street." "Her friend turned around and saw her and they started crying that she had been shot. They were hysterical," O'Neill said. McKee, who was unconscious, was quickly carried by police into the backseat of a car and rushed to hospital, O'Neill continued. O'Neill said that the group she was standing with was "a good distance away from where the petrol bottles were being thrown" and "people thought they were safe." She said the mood changed after McKee was shot with bystanders directing their anger towards the rioters and hurling abuse. "There was a lot of anger on the ground, people were shouting down at the rioters," she added. Flowers and tributes are left near the spot where McKee was shot on Thursday night. Growing unrest A recent spate of violence in Northern Ireland has raised fears that sectarian violence might be revived, amid ongoing concerns over the effects of Brexit. In January, a car bomb was detonated in Derry in a suspected attack by the New IRA. Many fear that Britain's departure from the European Union will mean the reintroduction of border posts on the frontier between Northern Ireland, part of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland, a European Union member. Border infrastructure was often targeted by Irish nationalist paramilitaries during the "Troubles" -- the 40-year sectarian conflict in which more than 3,500 people died. In a statement on Friday morning, British Prime Minister Theresa May said: "The death of Lyra McKee in last night's suspected terrorist incident in Londonderry is shocking and truly senseless. My deepest condolences go to her family, friends and colleagues. She was a journalist who died doing her job with great courage." She changed lives as she lived and will do so again in death'Taoiseach @LeoVaradkar pays tribute to journalist Lyra McKee @rtenews @rtepolitics pic.twitter.com/IrZ5qtMhSO — Aisling Kenny (@KennyAKE) April 19, 2019 Ireland's Prime Minister, or Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar condemned the killing of McKee "in the strongest possible terms" on Twitter, writing, "We are all full of sadness after last night's events. We cannot allow those who want to propagate violence, fear and hate to drag us back to the past." Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said in a statement: "The killing of a journalist in these circumstances is deeply shocking. To wake up to this news on Good Friday morning is disturbing and profoundly saddening." "A bright light has been quenched and that plunges all of us in to darkness," Stanistreet added. McKee was the first journalist to be killed in the UK since 2001. Northern Ireland has two main political parties, the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein.<doc-sep>I was standing beside this young woman when she fell beside a police Land Rover tonight in Creggan #Derry. I called an ambulance for her but police put her in the back of their vehicle and rushed her to hospital where she died. Just 29 years old. Sick to my stomach tonight pic.twitter.com/F0GHHd3HPz<doc-sep>“Instead of getting mad, she will reply, ‘Thank God you’re not pregnant,’ ” McKee assured her younger self. “You will crawl in her lap, sobbing, as she holds you and tells you that you are her little girl, and how could you ever think that anything would make her love you any less. You will feel like a prisoner who has been given their freedom.”<doc-sep>
LONDON — A journalist was fatally shot while reporting on a riot in the Northern Irish city of Londonderry on Thursday, authorities said. Lyra McKee, 29, was described by one colleague as a "rising star." Dozens of Molotov cocktails were thrown at officers during unrest in the Creggan area of the city, according to the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Journalist and author Lyra McKee on May 19, 2017. Jess Lowe / via AFP - Getty Images Around 100 people, including youths and members of the media, were at the scene when shots were fired before midnight local time. An eyewitness told the BBC that a gunman fired indiscriminately into a crowd. Leona O'Neill, a local journalist who was present, wrote on Twitter that she was with McKee when she was hit. She said McKee fell beside a police vehicle Land Rover and officers rushed her to hospital, where she died. I was standing beside this young woman when she fell beside a police Land Rover tonight in Creggan #Derry. I called an ambulance for her but police put her in the back of their vehicle and rushed her to hospital where she died. Just 29 years old. Sick to my stomach tonight pic.twitter.com/F0GHHd3HPz — Leona O'Neill (@LeonaONeill1) April 18, 2019 McKee had written for publications around the world including The Atlantic and she also edited for California-based news site Mediagazer. Her first book "The Lost Boys" was to be released next year, according to literary agency Janklow & Nesbit UK. Shocked. A rising star of journalism, and a wonderful, warm person. RIP @LyraMcKee https://t.co/rQ9TVlThbv — Alex Wood (@alexwoodcreates) April 19, 2019 Journalist shot dead in N. Ireland #LyraMcKee wrote of her generation never reaping the spoils of peace. Her legacy should be that must change. https://t.co/LvF8QnarH4 — Bill Neely (@BillNeelyNBC) April 19, 2019 She rose to prominence in 2014 with a blog post describing the struggle of growing up gay in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. Mark Hamilton, the police force's assistant chief constable, said a murder investigation had been launched. "We believe this to be a terrorist act. We believe it has been carried out by violent dissident republicans," he added. "Our assessment at this time is that the New IRA are most likely to be the ones behind this." The New IRA is a small group of republicans who reject the 1998 Good Friday agreement that marked the Irish Republican Army's embrace of a political solution to the long-running violence known as "The Troubles" that claimed more than 3,700 lives. The riot was the latest violent incident this year in Londonderry, also known as Derry. The detonation of a large car bomb outside a courthouse in January highlighted the threat still posed by militant groups opposed to the 1998 peace deal that largely ended three decades of violence in Northern Ireland. No one was injured in the blast. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., led a congressional delegation to the city earlier Thursday, as part of a trip to show support for the peace agreement. British Prime Minister Theresa May called McKee's killing "shocking and truly senseless."