The Bloody Sunday Inquiry today heard descriptions of a man pleading for soldiers to stop shooting so he could rescue his mortally wounded son - only to be shot himself.
Two witnesses, Mrs Celine Dunleavy and Mrs Marie Lynch told day 133 of the inquiry's public hearings how Mr lexander Nash called out for help on the rubble barricade across Derry's Rossville Street where his son William (19) had been gunned down.
William Nash was one of three men who were shot dead on the barricade and one of 13 who died on January 30th, 1972 when Paratroopers moved into the city's Bogside after a civil rights march. His father survived the shooting but died in recent years.
Earlier another witness, Mr Brian Rainey, described hearing shots ring out from the troops moving into the Bogside and simultaneously seeing "three or four young lads fall at the Rubble Barricade" simultaneously.
He stated: "I could not believe my eyes. I had never seen anyone shot before.
"I remember the way they fell was most unusual, they just dropped together in a lifeless way, not forwards or backwards, just sideways in a heap on top of one another."
From the witness box, he said some stoning had been taking place from the barricade but could not say for certain whether those who fell had been involved.
Mrs Dunleavy told the hearing she looked out the window of her flat overlooking Rossville Street and seeing two bodies on the barricade as well as Mr Nash, crouching and shouting: "For God's sake stop firing, see what you have done to my son."
She added: "He raised a hand, a shot rang out and his hand fell down."
Mrs Lynch, whose flat also overlooked the scene, said she saw Mr Nash below waving his arms and shouting about his son.
She added: "Someone in the flat with me shouted to the man, What do you want?' It sounds silly now but at the time we didn't know what was happening.
"Just after that I saw the man jerk backwards and down out of view behind the wall."
PA