[3][4] It was a significant incident as Newman was the first serving member of British Armed Forces to be killed by the INLA since 1984 when they shot dead UDR soldier Colin Houston.

[7] On 14 January 1993 an INLA hit team fired rifle shots through the window of the home of UVF leader John "Bunter" Graham at Belfast, seriously injuring him.

A car drove past them and as it did so, INLA gunmen inside the vehicle opened fire on the three men.

[9] David Lister and Hugh Jordan claimed that Gino Gallagher, who was himself shot dead in 1996 during an internal dispute, was the main gunman in the attack.

However, Jack Holland and Henry McDonald said that Gallagher was inside the car which was scouting the area for UVF members, and not one of the gunmen.

King and David Hamilton lay in the street, seriously wounded as panic and chaos erupted on the Shankill in the wake of the shooting.

The attack was the INLA's deadliest action since the Droppin Well bombing in 1982 which killed seventeen people, 11 British soldiers and 6 civilians.

When interviewed for Boston College for research on the conflict, Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine suggested the INLA might have been working in cahoots with the Provisional IRA in targeting prominent Loyalists, as the month after the Provisional IRA killed three leading UDA men, Ray Smallwoods on 11 July and Raymond Elder and Joe Bratty on 31 July.