Stephen Carroll was a Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer who was killed by the Continuity IRA on 9 March 2009 in Craigavon, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Carroll's killing marked the first time a serving police officer had been killed since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Two days before the attack the Real IRA shot dead two British soldiers in Massereene, County Antrim. This period marked a significant escalation in the campaign by dissident republicans.