One of the men shot dead on Bloody Sunday was seen trying to escape the mayhem with his hands on his head moments earlier, the Saville Inquiry heard today.
Mr John Friel said he saw Patrick Doherty (31) towards the front of a line of people trying to get clear of troops in the Bogside area of Derry by walking away in single file in a conspicuously unthreatening gait.
The party came under fire as they broke into a run towards an entry through the high Rossville Flats and minutes later Mr Friel came across the body of Mr Doherty on the other side of the complex, he told the inquiry.
Mr Doherty was one of the 13 men shot dead on January 30th 1972 when British army troops entered the Bogside in what was supposed to be an arrest operation following a civil rights demonstration.
Mr Friel, who was aged 19 on Bloody Sunday, said he was in the thick of heavy British army gunfire that day but could remember none of it until recently.
Giving evidence at the Guildhall in Derry, he said his recollection of events had only been reawakened in the past two years by photographs, including one placing him at a key location.
Mr Friel said he fled and ducked several bursts of shooting and saw a hysterical but unthreatening Michael Bridge shot and wounded in the car park of the Rossville Flats.
Mr Friel was one of several people who claims he witnessed probably the first shot fired by troops inside the Bogside that day.
Meanwhile a woman who was knocked down by an army truck on Bloody Sunday broke down today as she recalled being surrounded by bodies when ferried to hospital in an ambulance.
The Saville Inquiry adjourned briefly when Ms Alana McCay was overcome as she made the claim on day 76 of the public hearings.