A WITNESS at the Ballymurphy inquest has told how he cradled the head of a dying father-of-eight after he "fell at his feet" from a gunshot wound.
Francis Corr was speaking on the second day of hearings into the death of John McKerr.
Mr McKerr (49), a joiner from Andersonstown in west Belfast, was working at Corpus Christi Church when he was shot on August 11 1971.
He was one of 10 people shot dead in the area over three days following the introduction of internment. Another man died of a heart attack.
Mr Corr told the hearing yesterday at Laganside courts, presided over by coroner Mrs Justice Keegan, that he and his wife had been on their way from their home in Ballymurphy to his mother's house.
They had called into the church briefly to say a prayer.
As they were walking from Ballymurphy Road onto Westrock Drive, a man came up alongside them close to the chapel railing.
Mr Corr said: "I heard a sudden, single shot and the man fell at my feet.
"I grabbed my wife by the arm and ran her to an alleyway and told her to stay there."
Mr Corr said that when he ran back to help Mr McKerr he "was still breathing and making noises".
"I lifted the injured man's head. Blood was streaming out of him onto the road. There was grey matter coming out of the left hand side of his head.
"I shouted for someone to get a blanket or a pillow."
Mr Corr said immediately after the shot was fired he looked around and saw a black soldier with a red beret standing in a garden at the corner of Ballymurphy Road "with his gun raised, pointing at us".
Mr Corr said he also looked in the direction of Corry's timber yard, as he believed there was an army base there.
When asked if he was able to say whether the shot that hit Mr Kerr had come from the solider or from Corry's yard, he replied "no".
The hearing was attended by several members of Mr McKerr's family.
