Brother-in-law rescued from Bloody Sunday gunfire
A man yanked his brother-in-law to safety from the scene where three men were shot dead on Bloody Sunday, the inquiry into the shootings heard today.
Don Carlin told that bullets were whizzing into the rubble barricade in Derry’s Bogside and claimed that he pulled Daniel "Danno" Ryan away by the scruff of the neck during a lull in the gunfire.
Three of the 13 men killed on Bloody Sunday were gunned down on the barricade across the city’s Rossville Street and another three were shot in the area around it.
Mr Carlin told day 134 of public hearings that he saw Danno crouching down behind the barricade after troops moved in in the wake of a civil rights march and opened fire.
"I thought he was not safe there so I crawled out on my stomach to Danno and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and then dragged him back to the door at the southern end of Block 1 of the Rossville Flats.
"There were other people lying behind the rubble barricade as flat as they could and I was aware of bullets flying into the rubble barricade.
"It was during a lull in the shooting that I went out to get Danno. There were still some people running south of the rubble barricade but there was no-one north of the rubble barricade by this time.
"I could still see the soldiers in their firing positions near Kells Walk."
Later asked by Counsel to the Inquiry Christopher Clarke QC if he recognised anyone at the barricade, he replied: "No, I’m sorry, I was not looking for anybody in particular, I just wanted to get Danno, that was it."
