The policeman who shot the IRA suspect, Mr Diarmuid O'Neill, during a raid on a London hotel in 1996 did so because "this was a man who was going to kill me", he told an inquest into his death at Kingston Crown Court yesterday.
The Metropolitan Police officer, codenamed Kilo, was giving evidence from behind a black screen to protect his identity on the 11th day of the inquest.
Kilo told the inquest he shot Mr O'Neill (27), who was unarmed, six times during a police operation that had gone "badly wrong", but denied he had panicked and allowed his fear to override his judgment. "His whole body language suggested he was holding a weapon," Kilo said.
At the time of the raid on the hotel in west London in September 1996, police believed there were several IRA active service units operating in Britain which were responsible for the Canary Wharf and Aldwych bombings.
The police and security services mounted a huge surveillance operation tracking the movements of the IRA cell in the city. The three-month operation, which at one time involved up to 400 officers, linked Mr O'Neill to the discovery of explosives and ammunition stored at a lock-up facility in north London. Police believed Mr O'Neill was an IRA quartermaster responsible for procuring weapons and explosives.
Explaining his actions during the raid, Kilo, a member of Scotland Yard's SO19 squad, said he pushed open the door to room 303 at the hotel and saw a figure inside, which was later identified as Mr O'Neill. He told the jury he believed shots had already been fired from inside the room, where the police knew the IRA cell was staying, and then 10 rounds of CS gas were fired into the room.
Kilo was not wearing a respirator when the CS gas canisters were fired and he told the inquest that because of the smoke in the room he could not tell if the figure in the room was a man or a woman or whether the person was wearing clothes.
Mr Michael Mansfield QC, for the O'Neill family, put it to him that he fired six shots from his 9mm carbine "out of the pure panic of the situation" which had gone wrong.
"Your eyes were streaming, choking, you couldn't breathe with the lobby full of smoke. You see a figure and that's all you see. I suggest you were not in a position to make a decision," Mr Mansfield said. "You were so fired up, so anxious, the moment you'd got in the room the person was shot dead. Is that right, sir?"
Kilo replied: "No, sir, as far as I'm concerned he was not doing what I was telling him to do."