Many witness statements yesterday described in detail how father of six Mr Barney McGuigan (41) was shot through the head as he moved out from cover, holding up a white handkerchief to go to the aid of a dying man.
Many of the accounts describe a hail of fire into the confined area south of the high-rise Rossville Flats where Mr McGuigan and Mr Patrick Doherty (31) died and two others, Mr Patrick Campbell and Mr Daniel McGowan, were seriously wounded.
The inquiry heard that forensic consultants have reported to the tribunal that 42 opaque spots on an X-ray of Mr McGuigan's head were bullet fragments. His wounds were not caused by an intact bullet, the experts concluded, and one of a limited number of explanations was that the bullet which killed him had been deliberately weakened.
Former SDLP politician and civil rights activist Mr Ivan Cooper describes in his statement how he was only about 30 feet from Mr McGuigan and saw him move from the point at the south gable end of the flats, where he was sheltering from gunfire with other civilians.
He states: "I think that Barney had a cloth in his hand to signal that he was on an errand of mercy and was unarmed . . . had only taken a few steps and, as he came out into the open . . . I think that I then heard the same cracking noise as I had heard earlier of a shot being fired.
"The scene which I saw seemed to be in slow motion and the few seconds which this scene lasted were telescoped. Barney just folded up. He crumpled and fell down on his side . . . I will never forget the scene . . . I continued to crawl towards Barney's body . . . As soon as I reached Barney I knew that he had been fatally wounded."
Ms Geraldine Richmond, who had already seen Mr Hugh Gilmour die nearby, was huddled against the gable wall with Mr McGuigan and others and she said they could hear a man crying out repeatedly: "I do not want to die myself" or "I do not want to die alone".
Her statement says: "After a short time . . . Mr McGuigan said that he could not stand the sound of the man calling any longer and that if he went out waving a white hanky they would not shoot at him.
"We tried to dissuade him from going out. We told him they would shoot him. However, he was brave and he stepped away from us holding the white hanky in his hand. He walked out slowly, sideways in an arc, towards where we thought the sound was coming from . . . We were calling to him all the time to come back . . . I could see bullets going past us and Mr McGuigan from all directions.
"I remember hearing two distinct shots . . . The second shot hit him and blew his head up like a tomato exploding."
Successive statements by the many people who witnessed Mr McGuigan's death say they are certain the firing which killed him, and a short time earlier killed Mr Patrick Doherty, came from a paratrooper or paratroopers who were on the opposite side of Rossville Street, at the entrance to Glenfada Park.
Witnesses to the death of Mr Doherty say he set out to crawl from Rossville Flats to the shelter of an alleyway behind the next row of buildings, Joseph Place.
From the kitchen window of a flat on the second and third floors of Block 2 of Rossville Flats, Ms Donna Harkin states she saw the bullet hit Mr Doherty. She then saw another man, now known to be Mr Paddy Walsh, crawling out on his stomach. "Although for five minutes he tried to reach Mr Doherty, he could not make it because of the continuous shooting from the Glenfada Park area . . . After about five minutes the shooting stopped. Mr Walsh eventually reached Mr Doherty and turned him on to his back . . . It was obvious that Mr Doherty was dead."
Counsel to the tribunal, Mr Christopher Clarke QC, said there was no evidence Mr Doherty had any firearm or other weapon with or upon him.
The inquiry continues.