More evidence was given yesterday concerning the presence of a civilian gunman near the edge of the Bogside before it was invaded by paratroopers who killed 14 people.
Mr Bernard Gillespie described seeing seven or eight men arguing with a man who was holding a rifle at the corner of Columbcille Court. The gunman appeared to be in his 20s and was wearing an anorak or parka with a red lining.
The men around him were "all talking at the same time", telling him in effect that he wasn't to do anything with the rifle but was to go away, the witness said. He added that, from what he could make out, the gunman withdrew.
This incident happened, according to Mr Gillespie, shortly after he had seen a boy and an older man shot in rapid succession on waste ground off William Street. Standing nearby, when he heard these shots he had automatically looked towards where the sound had come from - the flat roof of the GPO building where he had earlier seen soldiers with rifles lying.
Mr Gillespie said he heard no shots fired by the civilian gunman. This man is believed to be the same gunman described by several other witnesses. It is understood that the inquiry has the name of an Official IRA member who has admitted firing a shot from that area at around the same time, claiming that he did so out of anger after seeing the soldiers shoot the boy, Damien Donaghy, and the older man, John Johnston, on the waste ground.
Another witness, Mr Pat Friel, who lived in the Rossville Flats at the time of Bloody Sunday, described witnessing the army shootings in the car-park of the flats after the soldiers entered the Bogside. He agreed that he heard some bottles breaking in the car-park, and at one point, while he sheltered behind a low wall as heavy rifle fire continued, he looked up and saw his father standing on a balcony of the flats shouting at the soldiers. He was amazed when his father later told his family that he had thrown a bottle of Windolene at one of the soldiers in the car-park below.
Mr Friel described helping with a badly injured casualty who was pulled into the flats and who he now knew to have been Kevin McElhinney, one of those killed. A priest had asked him to search this casualty - he believed, for identification. As he searched the man's pockets, he believed he was probably already dead. Although he found no identification, he found a rubber bullet which he assumed the victim had picked up as a trophy. "I think I said something to the priest like, `All this for a rubber bullet'," the witness said.
Mr Friel said he saw no civilians with weapons, heard no nail-bombs explode and saw no one throw a petrol-bomb. There was no shooting at the army from the Rossville Flats.
A witness who had finished service with the British army shortly before Bloody Sunday said he could not understand why the Parachute Regiment, of all the army regiments, had been sent in to deal with what was only likely to be a civil disturbance.
Mr Eric Irvine, who worked in a factory in the Creggan at the time, said he had recently come out of the army, having served in Hong Kong as a private in the Royal Fusiliers.
He said that after Bloody Sunday he was totally ashamed of what the army had done and did not mention to anyone again about his service. He said that as he was near Free Derry Corner he saw bullets hit the ground and the walls around him. The bullets came from high up. Because of the angle and the line of fire, he knew they were coming from the city walls. The inquiry continues today.