An Official IRA gunman who fired three shots at British army paratroopers in Derry on Bloody Sunday, was rushed to hospital yesterday after he became ill while giving his evidence to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.
As a result of the man's sudden illness, yesterday's hearing was adjourned. The anonymous witness, known as OIRA 4, who was a member of the Official IRA's Command Staff in Derry on Bloody Sunday on January 30th, 1972, had just started giving his evidence to the Inquiry about the killings by paratroopers of 13 civilians and wounding of 13 others in the Bogside area of Derry when he became unwell.
As he slumped forward in the witness box, barrister Mr Edwin Glasgow QC, who represents most of the Bloody Sunday paratroopers, ran towards the witness box. He laid the witness on the floor. Mr Glasgow removed his jacket and placed it under the witness's head. The barrister then cradled the witness's head in his hands and on several occasions felt the man's pulse.
The paratroopers' barrister was heard to say "stay with me, stay with me" on several occasions as the witness's eyes kept closing and as the witness seemed to struggle to breathe.
Minutes later members of Altnagelvin Hospital's cardiac ambulance unit arrived to give first aid before taking the witness to hospital where his condition later stabilised.
Meanwhile, in his submitted statement to the inquiry, OIRA 4 said that on the day of the civil rights march in the Bogside, he was armed with a .32 pistol for defensive purposes.
"We were not organised to take on a gunfight and with friends and family in the crowds, it would have been stupid to try to take them on. We simply didn't have the men or weapons to fight them anyway," he said.
The witness, who was aged 33 on Bloody Sunday, said the first shots he heard were fired when he was in the Chamberlain Street area of the Bogside. As he ran into the car-park of the Rossville Flats complex, he saw the body of Jack Duddy, (17), the youngest and the first of the Bloody Sunday victims.
He stated that he then saw paratroopers firing in the direction of where the dead youth lay and he believed those paratroopers had killed the youth.
"I just lost my temper. The Brits were gunning down innocent civilians. I took my short weapon out of my pocket and fired two, possibly three, shots towards a Saracen. I did it out of pure anger at what was happening around me.
"As I have said, my gun was a .32 calibre, a small, and looking back, a pretty pathetic weapon and I was probably well out of range to do any damage to the Paras or their Saracen," he said.
The witness also started that he did not believe the advancing paratroopers had seen him because if they had, "they would have shot me to pieces".
He said that a number of civilians, among them Father Edward Daly, who were tending to the fatally wounded teenager shouted at him to stop firing at the paratroopers.
"I was still mad as hell, but these people brought me to my senses and I put my gun away in my coat pocket. It never left the pocket after that," his statement added.
The inquiry resumes today.