A man who says he saw the first fatality of Bloody Sunday claimed today he heard token resistance IRA gunfire after the withdrawal of British army paratroopers.
Mr Brian Johnston said he heard around six low velocity shots inside Derry’s Bogside 45 minutes after the soldiers' shooting there ceased.
He believed the rounds were aimed at the army posts on the historicwalls overlooking the district following the army operation, he said.
Mr Johnston, who was 23 years old on Bloody Sunday, took part in the civil rights march which took part that day and said he was awarebeforehand that the IRA was staying in the neighbouring Cregganestate.
He told the Saville Inquiry at the Guildhall in Derry it was thought troops may try to take over the Creggan once the demonstration set off from there, leaving it empty.
In his statement to the inquiry, Mr Johnston said he later provided a written deposition "at the Official IRA HQ" the day after Bloody Sunday, but under cross-examination by Mr Edwin Glasgow QC, acting formost of the soldiers, said the premises were instead thought to havebeen used by the organisation's political allies in Official Sinn Féin.
Earlier he spoke of seeing Mr Jack Duddy (17) shot as he ran across the car park of the Rossville Flats and fall face forward to the ground.
PA