I caught victim in my arms after he was shot by soldier, eyewitness tells inquest
AN eyewitness from the Ballymurphy massacre has told an inquest of the moment he caught a man in his arms after he was shot by a soldier.
A new set of inquests began this year into the deaths of 10 people in west Belfast over three days in August 1971.
Father off our Edward Do her ty (31) died on August 10 after being shot once near a barricade on the Whiterock Road.
The circumstances are disputed, with a soldier identified only as M3 claiming he was defending himself as Mr Doherty was about to throw a petrol bomb.
Other witnesses state there was no petrol bomb and Mr Doherty was running away when the gun fired.
Yesterday, eyewitness Joseph McAreavey told the court he caught Mr Doherty in his arms as he was shot.
Mr McAreavey had been visiting his brother and said he encountered a “chaotic” atmosphere on the Whiterock Road.
A barrier had been constructed to keep the Army out while local residents made food deliveries, with a large tree also blocking the road.
“The adrenaline was high because the Army were trying to break through into our area and we were defending it,” he said.
“It was total chaos. Men, women and children were throwing stones at the Army.”
An Army tractor had attempted to push through the barricade but got stuck.
Around 5pm, he claimed he saw Mr Doherty who he recognised from playing football.
He said he wasn’t throwing anything and was trying to make his way home.
Mr McAreavey says he has a vivid memory of the tractor cab opening and a soldier, believed to be M3, emerging with a gun pointed in his direction. At this point Mr McAreavey said both heandMrDohertybegantorun away.
“(Eddie) slipped on glass... He said ‘I’m hit’ and fell into my arms.”
Mr Doherty said there was a bullet hole afterwards in his own jacket.
Shot in the left side of his back with an exit wound from his right chest, Mr Doherty had been helped to a nearby house within minutes where Mr McAreavey’s sister, who worked as a nurse, pronounced him dead.
Mr McAreavey is due to continue his evidence on Monday.
Earlier, the court also heard from the original pathologist who carried out Mr Doherty’s autopsy, Professor Thomas Marshall.
He said a police officer had told him that day that Mr Doherty died after throwing petrol bombs.
Professor Marshall said he didn’t include this in his report as it was “hearsay” and that he did not detect any smell of petrol on Mr Doherty’s clothes.
An agreed report from three ballistics experts was also submitted.
Paul Michael Olden told the court they agreed that Mr Doherty’s wounds would be consistent with three scenarios; bending down, running away while leaning or throwing but the available evidence “does not provide particular support for one of these or the other”.
Yesterday, a joint report was submitted by two other pathologists who reviewed Professor Marshall’s original autopsy report.
Out of two possible scenarios Dr Benjamin Swift, a pathologist for the Coroner, said he preferred M3’s version that Mr Doherty had been in an “exaggerated throwing stance” when he shot him.
This was not accepted by a pathologist for the next of kin, Dr Nathaniel Cary.