A witness told the inquiry that a British soldier opened fire on him as he tried to carry his critically injured brother-in-law to safety. He was crossing an enclosed courtyard of Glenfada Park in Derry on Bloody Sunday.
Mr George Downey outlined how he was at the entrance of Glenfada Park North when paratroopers entered the Bog side and began shooting.
After the first burst of rapid gunfire subsided, he looked out from cover and saw up to five men lying still on the barricade. "I also distinctly remember seeing an old man crawling on his elbows towards the barricade," he said.
"I learned later that he was Alexander Nash [who] was crawling towards the barricade to reach his son, William, who lay shot on it." After men dragged one of the bodies behind the gable of Glenfada Park, he recognised his 17-year-old brother-in-law, Michael Kelly.
He picked him up and headed for an alleyway off the courtyard to get medical attention for him.
A soldier emerged through the alleyway in the north-eastern corner of the courtyard and aimed a rifle in his direction. Mr Downey turned and ran, with the injured youth still in his arms. "I was shot at three times and the bullets hit the wall in front of me. I cannot understand how I am alive," he said.
He tripped and fell, and another man picked Michael up and slung him over his shoulder. They both ran with the injured youth to a nearby house.
The tribunal also heard from international human rights lawyer and former civil rights activist in the North, Prof Kevin Boyle, who said that, in retrospect, the big demonstrations in the late 1960s had only helped polarise the old sectarian divisions.
"At the time, we thought that we were changing things, but in retrospect we were simply turning back the pages of history," said Prof Boyle, of the University of Essex, who was a prominent member of both NICRA (the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association) and the radical student movement, People's Democracy (PD).
The Newry-born law professor also said that in retrospect the Burntollet march led by PD students in January, 1969, which was brutally attacked by loyalists, had been "a foolhardy affair".
It was non-violent and nonsectarian and had never expected serious violence to be initiated by the RUC or the British Army on Bloody Sunday when it organised the Derry demonstration to protest against the introduction of internment without trial in the North.
Prof Boyle, who was on the NICRA executive, said he had a distinct memory that assurances were sought from the IRA that no violence would take place during the demonstration.
The inquiry continues today.