A RETIRED teacher has told the inquest into the deaths of 10 men shot by the IRA at Kingsmills that he saw a farmer collect empty bullet casings from the road.
Gerry McKeown, who was the first person to stop at the scene following the 1976 massacre, said he still did not understand why he had not been questioned by police.
Neither Mr McKeown nor his wife Anne were asked to give statements to the RUC at the time.
He was only able to tell his story to the PSNI's Historical Enquiries Team in 2010.
Ten Protestant workers were were taken from their minibus and shot dead by IRA gunmen on January 5 1976.
They were ambushed as they travelled along the Whitecross to Bessbrook road in south Armagh in an attack seen as reprisal for loyalist killings in the same area.
Shortly after the attack, Mr McKeown was driving his wife Anne and two young children when they came upon the scene.
An emotional Mr McKeown, who is Catholic, recalled how he said a prayer for the victims, including the sole survivor Alan Black.
"That night, in a ditch with Alan Black, we were praying to the one God and we had the one hope; that he [Alan] would pull through," he said.
Mr McKeown said he will never forget the horror of what he witnessed.
"For years, any time I passed that spot, I would put the boot down. I was stopping for no-one," he said.
Mr Black and Mr McKeown had not met since the massacre.
As Mr McKeown finished his evidence, Mr Black rose from his seat and the two men shook hands.
The inquest is continuing.
During an earlier sitting of the inquest this week, it emerged that a potential suspect in the massacre had been identified following a forensic re-examination of a palm print left on a getaway vehicle.
The vehicle was re-examined by forensic scientists last week and a potential match on the police's database was made.
A lawyer for the PSNI later informed coroner Brian Sherrard, who described it as a "massive development" in the case.
Meanwhile, DUP leader Arlene Foster and party colleague William Irwin yesterday met relatives of those murdered at Kingsmills.
"Whilst the reopening of the criminal investigation has raised questions in some minds about how this evidence has only come forward now, it does bring open the possibility that someone might finally be held responsible for this heinous crime," she said.
