Gunman who shot Bradley Welsh threatened terrified neighbour
The gunman who blasted shooting victim Bradley Welsh on his own doorstep pointed the weapon at a neighbour seconds later and threatened him.
Edward Rennie, 35, told a jury that he “passed the time of day”’ with close neighbour Welsh outside his Edinburgh West End home at around 8pm on April 17, 2019.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard the chartered surveyor was going to have a cigarette after Welsh walked away from him.
Mr Rennie said he then heard a loud sound and turned around to see a man holding a shotgun standing outside Welsh’s property.
He said the man then ran along Chester Street and headed towards Walker Street before the male “caught sight” of him.
Mr Rennie said: “He pointed the gun at me and shouted at me something like ‘don’t f ***** g look at me’.”
Prosecution lawyer Mr Goddard said: “What was your reaction to that?”
Mr Rennie replied: “I dived on the ground. I dived behind a parked car and peered through the glass of the car and then I ran back towards my flat.”
The witness, who said he now lived in the “Lothians”, was giving evidence on the fifth day of proceedings against 30-year-old Sean Orman, of Edinburgh.
Orman denies murdering the T2 Trainspotting star on April 17, 2019.
Outside of acting, Welsh, a Hibs fan, ran a boxing gym in
Edinburgh and had been offering programmes to help children stay out of trouble.
He was also involved with and Edinburgh-based charity Helping Hands which fights inequality in the city.
Before taking up acting, Welsh was also an amateur British lightweight boxing champion.
Mr Rennie told the court yesterday he usually left his home to have a cigarette in the evenings when he stayed in Chester
Street. He said he lived above Welsh, who stayed in a basement flat.
Mr Rennie said: “We passed the time of day. He turned to go to his flat and he turned down the street. I heard a bang and turned around and saw a man standing on top of Bradley’s stairwell pointing a shotgun down the stair. He held it at his hip.”
Mr Rennie said he had a shotgun certificate and had some knowledge of the weapon. He said he thought the man’s shotgun was of a small calibre. After the man told him to stop looking at him, Mr Rennie said he headed towards back the property and he concluded that Mr Welsh had been shot at “close range”.
He said he made attempts to “verify life” and phoned the emergency services.
Mr Rennie described the manwiththeshotgunasbeing in his “mid 20s to early 30s”. He also said the man was wearing a “heavy puffa jacket”.
Mr Rennie also said he thought the man with the gun looked as if he had a “fake tan”.
Last week, the jury were read the contents of a documents of evidence which had been agreed between prosecutors and Mr Orman’s lawyers.
Mr Orman pleaded not guilty to 14 other charges. The trial, before judge Lord Beckett, continues.