Day 329 A former British army paratrooper said yesterday he stood over his allegation that he exchanged fire with one or two civilian gunmen in Derry on Bloody Sunday.
The former soldier said that a total of 13 shots were fired at him when paratroopers were deployed into the Bogside area of Derry during a civil rights march in January 1972. He returned fire on four occasions, firing 12 shots from his SLR rifle at a gunman or gunmen armed with an M-1 carbine rifle and he said yesterday that on two of the occasions when he returned fire, he hit his intended target. The witness, known as Soldier S, who was aged 18 on Bloody Sunday, is the first former paratrooper to tell the inquiry he shot at and hit a civilian gunman on the day.
He said that although he had forgotten most of what had happened on that day, he stood over evidence he had given to the original Widgery Inquiry held just weeks after Bloody Sunday. In his 1972 findings, Lord Widgery said that Soldier S's actions were "unjustifiably dangerous".
He told the inquiry he was the driver of the first army personnel carrier which entered the Bogside on Bloody Sunday. Shortly after he had alighted from the carrier, he came under fire. He said he then saw a gunman in an alleyway between two blocks of the Rossville Flats complex. The gunman, he said, fired four shots in his direction.
"As soon as I had identified the weapon clearly I fired three aimed shots at him but I think I missed," his statement said. "After a very short time, about 30 seconds later, I caught sight of him again.
"He was kneeling and facing me. I heard the sound of firing again and this time I saw muzzle flashes coming from the weapon at his shoulder. I immediately fired three aimed shots and I believe I hit him."