An IRA gunman sheltering in a doorway shot a civilian dead at a barricade on Bloody Sunday, a former paratrooper claimed today.
Soldier U, giving evidence at the Saville Inquiry at Central Hall in Westminster, described in his statement how he saw an arm appear holding a pistol from the Rossville Flats.
The soldier, then a private in Mortar Platoon of the Parachute Regiment, said the gunman blindly fired two rounds in quick succession, injuring an old man in the arm at the Rubble Barricade.
He said one of the bullets killed a young man standing nearby.
"As the other shot rang out (probably the second) the young lad's head jerked backwards. The impression I had at the time was that the shot had hit him.
"At that moment, the old man turned the young boy round, laid him down and shouted something like `he's dead'. He then wandered away, looking like he was in a daze."
However, there is no evidence of a young man sustaining a fatal head wound at the Rubble Barricade on Bloody Sunday.
The tribunal, which has interviewed more than 800 witnesses, is investigating the events of January 30th, 1972, when 13 civilians were shot dead by paratroopers during a Civil Rights march in the Bogside area of Derry. A 14th man later died of his wounds.
PA