Elliot was fatally shot at close range by RHC gunmen as he was getting into his car after leaving a friend's house in Primacy Park, Bangor, County Down on 28 September 1995. One bullet hit him in the back of the neck and another went through his ear, killing him instantly. When a woman came upon his body, he was still clutching his car keys. Elliot had been lured to the house by other RHC members on the orders of the unnamed commander of the group. His killing was sanctioned by both the UVF and RHC as a punishment for the brutal death of Margaret Wright which had provoked a public outcry and "tarnished" the RHC's image. According to Jim Cusack and Henry McDonald, Elliot had been a drug dealer and this too had helped to seal his fate as the RHC commander was strongly opposed to drug dealing by members of the organisation.Cusack, Jim & McDonald, Henry (1997). UVF. Poolbeg. p.328 The authors subsequently claimed that the killing had been carried out by Frankie Curry,Jim Cusack & Henry McDonald, UVF: Endgame, Poolbeg, 2008, p. 382 a claim Curry himself corroborated in an interview shortly before his own death in 1999. Billy Hutchinson of the UVF-linked Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) offered the following statement justifying Elliot's punishment killing: "No one but close relatives will miss Elliot. The fact is, with him gone Northern Ireland's a wee bit safer place for all of us to live"."Some Irish 'loyalists' threaten cease-fire". The Sunday Gazette. Shawn Pogatchnik. 13 October 1995.
