William Johnston Beacom

The attack occurred at 3:00pm when members of the Neighbourhood Policing Unit were on mobile patrol driving along Friendly Street in the Markets district of Belfast.

The terrorists fired a warhead from a homemade rocket launcher into an RUC Land Rover. The device struck the driver’s door and exploded, killing Constable Beacom and injuring two other police officers.

A man who had been delivering leaflets for a nearby church said he heard the explosion and saw the policemen climbing out of the Land Rover.

He said that “they were really shocked. They were frightened and shocked and I assured them that I was there to help them and I got into the Land Rover and I held the policeman. I asked his colleague what was his name. He told me it was Johnston and I kept pleading with him to “hold on Johnston, hold on, and hold on, Jesus loves you”. I got in behind him and I held his head and I held his arms and his hands and I held them around him and that’s the only consolation I could give him, to talk and call the name of Jesus to him. That’s the only thing I could do for him. He wasn’t able to say anything. He died before the ambulance came”.

William was survived by his wife and their three children.