Around 1000 people were quizzed today during a major roadblock operation as detectives continued their hunt for the killer of a man gunned down on his doorstep.
More than 30 police officers stopped early morning commuters exactly one week on from the murder of Brian Harkins, in Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire.
Police revealed they had narrowed down the key period when the gunman struck, and are focusing on a time frame of between 7am and 9am last Wednesday.
Mr Harkins is understood to have been shot around 8am just yards from the busy main road. The roadblock was set up in Westmuir Place, close to the 45-year-old's home.
Mr Harkins, who was known to police, was found dead by a family friend around 10am last Wednesday, but senior detectives believe the killer struck earlier that morning.
He was pronounced dead at the scene, which sits close to Prospecthill Road, a busy thoroughfare which joins Rutherglen and Toryglen.
Police officers stopped cars, buses and passers-by this morning and quizzed them on the movements last week to gain information on who was in the area at the time.
Officers boarded buses and spoke to passengers who may have been passing by last Wednesday. Vehicles were stopped on both sides of the road and traffic was tailed back along Westmuir Place.
Detective Chief Inspector Kenny Graham, who is leading the investigation, said: "We are focusing on a critical period of time between 7am and 9am. Someone must have seen the gunman approach and leave the house and we are keen to speak to anyone who was travelling along Westmuir Place around that time last Wednesday.
"I would like to thank the public for their help today. This was not a random attack, and we also wanted to reassure the public with our high visibility presence this morning. There have also been extra patrols in the area."
DCI Graham said he believes someone holds vital information about last week's incidents.
He added: "It is a busy commuter road leading to Prospecthill Road. People would have been heading to work and taking their children to school and they may have seen something which could be vital to our investigation. Did they see someone coming and going from the house, was there a car parked nearby?"
Floral tributes have been placed outside Mr Harkins' home. A heart-shaped arrangement was placed alongside flowers spelling out Brian.
DCI Graham said: "The family are understandably devastated and are keen to see a quick resolution to this investigation."
Anyone with any information is asked to call 0141 532 5415.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article