A former British soldier today told the Saville Inquiry that he did not hear any gunfire before the Parachute Regiment moved into the Bogside on Bloody Sunday.
Soldier 41, a platoon commander in the Light Air Defence Regiment, who was in charge of a barrier in Sackville Street on the fringe of the Bogside, recalled rioters throwing stones and bricks at his troops but there were no nail bombs or petrol bombs thrown at them.
He remembered hearing the first live rounds after paratroopers ran past his barrier and into the Bogside.
"Who fired these shots and where they came from I do not know. It was impossible to pinpoint the direction of the gunfire," he said.
Sergeant Major 41 told the Inquiry that he recalled one of his men, Soldier Z kneel down on one knee in a firing position after his troop moved past the barrier.
The next thing he remembered was a shot from an armalite rifle being fired which ricocheted off the wall on the north side of Sackville Street.
"The shot that was fired was what I would describe as a 'killer shot' in that if it had hit you it would most certainly have killed you. The bullet which ricocheted off the wall was fired from an armalite weapon. Armalite rifles were one of the favourite weapons used by the IRA at that time."
Last week Soldier Z told the Inquiry that he fired at a gunman in an derelict building in Abbey Street and believed he had scored a hit. He said that his sergeant major had ordered him to open fire.
Sergeant 41 told the Inquiry that he saw lance bombardier Z fire at aimed shot at a burnt out factory building but said he did not remember giving him an order to do so.
He said as soon the shot was fired he hit the deck and looked through his binoculars at the factory.
"As I looked, I saw a man's arm hanging out of a window which moments later slumped back from the window and disappeared," he said.
"It was my assumption upon seeing the arm hanging out of the window and then slumping back that either the man had been hit or alternatively someone was pulling him back into the building."
PA