A former British soldier has told the Saville Inquiry he saw a civilian gunman open fire with a handgun on Bloody Sunday from Derry's Rossville flats complex.
Identified as Soldier 033, the former Paratrooper claimed that he saw part of an arm and a handgun emerge from the ground floor of the complex and open fire along Rossville Street.
He claimed he also saw "strike" marks from the gun on a rubble barricade on Rossville Street, close to a man who was waving his arm.
Three people fell dead at the rubble barricade, one of whom was William Nash, whose father Alex was shot and wounded when he went to his son's aid.
"The way the bullets struck the barricade, they could not have come from the soldiers. I found this very confusing," the former soldier said in his written statement.
"It looked to me as if the gunman was shooting at one of his own people. It did not make any sense, but that is what I saw and I have absolutely no doubt about that."
Questioned by Kieran Mallon, counsel to the Nash family, the witness agreed that Mr Nash was most likely shot and wounded before he reached the position from which he claimed to have seen the arm and handgun.
Mr Mallon also put it to the witness that another soldier's account of a gunman being seen at Rossville flats with a handgun was different from his.
"I want to suggest to you that that account of a pistol firer... is an example of your preparedness to lie and an example of you seeking to provide ex post facto a justification for the discharge of live gunfire at unarmed civilians?" the barrister said.
Soldier 033 said this was not correct and that he was merely telling the inquiry what he remembered of the day.
Mr Mallon pointed out that the witness changed some aspects of his evidence, claiming at first he saw the handgun from a window and then from a door.
He suggested that he did so when it was pointed out that there were no windows on the ground floor of the complex.
But the witness said he changed his account because he first assumed it was a window but later realised it was a door.
