The former State solicitor for Sligo, Mr Thomas Tigue, was at the rear of his house across from Carrownanty Cemetery on the day of the fatal shooting.
"I heard a commotion on the road. I heard cracks. It sounded like three gun shots. It wasn't that loud, then I heard the sound of stampeding feet down the road," Mr Tigue told the jury.
Mr Tigue added that he had seen a crowd of 14 to 15 youths aged 18-25 years running down the road. They were gathering outside the cemetery, he said.
"As the group passed, one man peeled away from the group and came into my driveway.
"I saw that he was being followed by a man carrying a gun - he was running also," Mr Tigue said.
This man later told Mr Tigue that his name was Ward.
"He shouted, let me in, let me in and then he started shouting about a gun," Mr Tigue said.
"I declined to let him in," he said.
"He was carrying a hedging knife - used for cutting hedges - in his hand. He asked again, 'let me in, let me in'. I said no," Mr Tigue said.
"Then he asked me did I have a gun," he said.
The gunman, Mr Tigue added, was 24 or 25 years of age, was well built and had close-cropped hair.
Mr Tigue told the jury he thought the handgun was a "German Luger hand gun with a thin barrel and a calibre of about .22".
The gunman was standing about 30-40 yards away from Mr Tigue and the Mr Ward.
The gunman had been running after the group of people, Mr Tigue said, but when Mr Ward "peeled off" from the group, he stopped in Mr Tigue's driveway.
"He let loose a few shots indiscriminately before he stopped," Mr Tigue said.
At this stage Mr Ward was standing about a foot in front of Mr Tigue outside his porch.
"The gunman stopped in his tracks at the gate when he saw the chap at my porch, he pointed the gun at myself and the Ward man.
"Mr Ward then made a flying leap at my front door and broke it in," he said.
Mr Tigue said the door was solid mahogany yet Mr Ward managed to break the frame and gain entry to his house.
After Mr Ward ran upstairs, Mr Tigue stayed outside until the gunman had run away down the road in the direction of Tubbercurry.
When Mr Tigue went into his house he heard Mr Ward upstairs going from room to room.
"He said he was looking for a gun."
"When he came back down, he was still asking for a gun. He said all houses like this have guns. I repeated that I didn't have a gun," Mr Tigue said.
A young woman then joined the Ward man, said Mr Tigue.
The pair, he added, promised to come back in a few days to pay for the damage done to the door.
The trial continues before Mr Justice O'Neill.