Woman, aged 60, tells of panic as car is hit by PSNI and rifle pointed at vehicle

A woman in her 60s caught up in an 'enforced stop' during which it is claimed the car she was driving was hit by a police vehicle has said the incident induced a panic attack.
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Fiona Millar (60) said the incident occurred when she was driving her son Barry, a member of the republican group Saoradh, from her home in Creggan to his home in Ballymagroarty shortly after 8pm last Thursday.

Mrs. Millar said she had a panic attack due to the manner of the operation.

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She claimed a rifle was pointed at the car from one vehicle while another vehicle 'rammed' the car she was driving from behind leaving a dent.

The vehicle in which Fiona and Barry Millar were travelling.The vehicle in which Fiona and Barry Millar were travelling.
The vehicle in which Fiona and Barry Millar were travelling.

"I never noticed them behind me and when I saw them I said 'look at this eejit, trying to overtake'. Then it was the blue lights I saw and then a boy hanging out the window with a rifle.

"They took me out of the car and I was in front of their jeep. I was in a bad enough way. They were searching the car. Then they said I could go into the car and sit. But at this stage I didn't know what was happening.”

Mrs. Millar’s son Barry – a member of Saoradh and the Irish Republican Prisoners’ Welfare Association – had been taken from the car and his hands cable tied, she claimed.

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Mr. Millar, who received a two month suspended sentence for being among a colour party at an Easter parade in Derry in 2017, told the ‘Journal’ that he is not facing any charges and had done nothing wrong.

“I have to take my oil. I made a conscious decision to get involved in Saoradh,” he said, but claimed, “They are targeting my family just to get at me.”

Mrs. Millar said: “I was just all over the place. When they actually hit the car he had his hands on his head and was calling to them, ‘I'm along with my mother.' I didn’t know what was going on.”

"I'm not even political. I've never been caught up in anything like that."

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A PSNI spokesperson said that ‘police conducted an enforced stop of a vehicle on Creggan Road in Derry/Londonderry on Thursday, October 13, during which there was a minor collision between the police vehicle and the vehicle being stopped’.

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