Jackie McDonald has described the incident, as the police stood between rival UDA gangs in the Co Antrim town.

"He (the police officer) was five yards in front of me - directly between me and the gunman," McDonald - a paramilitary 'brigadier' - told this newspaper.

"The gunman was on a hill," he continued.

When the shots were fired, McDonald said he saw the officer "twisting round and falling", and then being "dragged away" by colleagues.

Saturday's night's violence is linked to the long-running power struggle between the mainstream UDA and a faction in south east Antrim recently expelled from the organisation.

Those expelled include the paramilitary 'brigadier' Gary Fisher, political adviser Tommy Kirkham, and the 'commander' in Carrickfergus and Larne.

UDA men loyal to the inner council leadership travelled to Carrickfergus on Saturday night to look for him after what McDonald described as "a day-long process of intimidation".

A stand-off developed with police between rival UDA gangs.

McDonald claims other UDA members loyal to the mainstream leadership have since been forced from their homes in Rathcoole and Carrickfergus.

He also claimed that the Fisher faction had earlier given a guarantee through an intermediary that there would be no violence.

McDonald described the situation as "tense" and "volatile" .

"Anything could happen," he told the Belfast Telegraph.

"If anyone else is attacked they (the Fisher faction) are going to put the organisation in an impossible position," he continued.

The UDA leadership met in north Belfast yesterday - a meeting monitored by the police.

"We are trying to have a peaceful solution," McDonald said, " but it's making it very, very difficult."

The purpose of the interim leadership in south east Antrim was to try to force Fisher and Kirkham out, but the weekend violence has developed as a result.

The UDA - under scrutiny by the police, the IMC, and by government heads at Stormont - is locked in yet another power struggle.

Government funding for a conflict transformation initiative in loyalist areas is currently under review.

And as that review continues, the UDA may be walking into another street battle.

The "peaceful solution" that McDonald says the paramilitary organisation wants seems to have been lost amid the events of the weekend.