A GUNMAN showed no remorse as he stood over a soldier and shot him at close range, a British army comrade who survived the dissident republican attack has told a court.
Mark Fitzpatrick was badly injured in the ambush outside Massereene army barracks, Antrim, that claimed the lives of his fellow Royal Engineer sappers Patrick Azimkar (21), from London, and Mark Quinsey (23), from Birmingham.
The Real IRA said it carried out the attack.
Giving evidence at the trial of two men accused of the murders, Mr Fitzpatrick, who has since left the army due to injuries he sustained that night, described watching from the footwell of a car as a gunman stopped over Patrick Azimkar and “finished him off”.
“Whoever it was wanted to cause damage and they finished him off before firing in at me,” he told Antrim Crown Court.
He added: “There was no remorse. He knew what he was doing, he just seemed to do it all quick.”
The court later heard a statement from an army medic indicating that Mark Quinsey also received shots from close range in the March 2009 attack.
Despite frantic efforts to save the lives of the sappers, both were declared dead shortly after the shootings.
Mr Fitzpatrick was one of three soldiers who survived the ambush at the barracks’ gates in Antrim town as they briefly stepped outside to collect pizzas from two delivery drivers.
They were only hours from flying to Afghanistan to begin a six-month tour of duty and were already dressed in desert fatigues.
Colin Duffy (43), from Forest Glade in Lurgan, Co Armagh, and Brian Shivers (46), from Sperrin Mews, Magherafelt, Co Derry, deny charges of murder and the attempted murder of six other men, including the two delivery drivers and a security guard.
Mr Fitzpatrick recalled the moment he and his comrades were fired on as they went to collect their pizzas.
“I heard a noise, I don’t know what it was, then I heard someone shout ‘Get down’,” he said.
“As that happened Pat fell on top of me, I hit the floor and crawled round the car, I looked up and saw a gunman in a balaclava shooting my friend.”
Mr Fitzpatrick sustained gunshot wounds to his hand and shoulder, with one bullet puncturing his lung.
The ex-soldier said he looked out through the window of the pizza delivery car he had crawled into and caught the eye of the gunman.
“When he seen me in the car he opened fire,” he said.
“It was an automatic, probably about 10 to 15 seconds of constant fire.”
Relatives of the murdered soldiers were visibly upset in the public gallery as Mr Fitzpatrick recounted the incident to a silent courtroom.
While Mr Fitzpatrick said he saw only one gunman, CCTV footage of the shooting played to the court on the opening day of the trial on Monday showed two masked attackers.