A witness has told a jury that gardaí allowed him "drive into an ambush" of an assembled crowd of up to 150 people.
The state witness in the trial of five men accused of killing their cousin at a family funeral said: "We were led to the slaughter, into an ambush."
Five men have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Patrick Ward in May 1999 at Carrownanty Cemetery in Ballymote, Co Sligo.
Mr Michael McDonagh snr (58), Mr Martin McDonagh snr (53), Mr Michael McDonagh jnr (29), Mr Patrick McDonagh (33) and Mr Martin McDonagh jnr (26) from Hertfordshire have all denied the murder of Mr Ward.
They have also denied the attempted murder of Mr Patrick Ward snr, Mr Patrick Ward jnr and Mr Edward Ward on the same occasion. The accused men also pleaded not guilty to causing violent disorder on the same date.
Under cross-examination by Mr Anthony Sammon SC, acting on behalf of Mr Patrick McDonagh, Mr Ward jnr said he was initially reluctant to make a statement to the Garda.
"At the time, I didn't think Patrick was shot dead. I thought he was shot in the leg. If Patrick wasn't dead I probably wouldn't be here. I was just glad to get away from the gunmen."
When pressed again by Mr Sammon about making a statement, Mr Ward jnr said, "more likely I wouldn't. The police was as much to blame as the gunmen at the time, they allowed us go into an ambush."
Mr Sammon suggested to Mr Ward jnr that he was mistaken about the gardaí's role in the incident. Mr Ward jnr claims there were no Garda checkpoints on the Ballymote side to the graveyard which was the direction, he claims the McDonagh clan drove to the funeral.
On the day of the shooting there had been Garda checkpoints checking all vehicles for weapons.
Mr Sammon suggested to Mr Ward jnr that his account that six gunmen came out from the crowd of McDonaghs is "utter manufactured contrivance" and that at no stage was there any regimental line of gunmen.
Mr Ward jnr replied: "Everything I say here is the truth."