AN inquest has heard how a passer-by battled to save the life of a man fatally wounded after being shot in east Belfast.
Thomas Lockhart, 25, was in the cab of his lorry when he was gunned down in broad daylight at "Freedom Corner" at the busy intersection of the Newtownards Road and Templemore Avenue on July 1, 2005.
He was helping to demolish the loyalist Avenue O
ne bar, which was located at the junction.
At one stage the bar was owned by paramilitary leader Jim Gray, who was himself murdered later the same year.
Mr Lockhart's inquest heard that at least one man fired seven shots – some through the windscreen – at him at about 10.15am, causing the vehicle to crash into a lamppost where he lay slumped over the steering wheel of his lorry.
As blood poured from the victim's body, forming in a "large pool" underneath the lorry, a passing motorist stopped and climbed into the cab, desperately trying to prolong the young father's life until paramedics arrived.
Andrew Popplewell, described in court by another witness as "a well-dressed, balding man of about 50", stopped his car after a work colleague in the car with him said that a man was slumped over the lorry's steering wheel.
In a statement to the court, Mr Popplewell described how, as the seriousness of the incident became apparent, he cast aside his jacket and clambered up to the cab, trying to help the dying man.
He said: "I saw some liquid dripping from the cab, forming a large pool underneath the lorry."
He climbed onto the footplate of the cab and found Mr Lockhart's white tee-shirt soaked in blood.
"Someone shouted from behind me, 'he's been shot'," he said.
"I was concerned at the loss of blood and during the time I was in the cab he (Mr Lockhart) did not speak to me or make any hand signals.
"He then began to deteriorate, turning ashen grey; his eyes rolling."
At this point paramedics arrived but could find no pulse in Mr Lockhart so began cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Mr Popplewell said: "He began to breathe again and was coughing blood from his mouth.
"At that point we both thought that we were making some progress."
Mr Lockhart was taken on a stretcher from the scene but later died.
In a statement submitted to the inquest, Mr Lockhart's partner, Emma Nesbitt, said that he had been aware of a threat to his life from loyalist paramilitaries.
She said that she had known Mr Lockhart for about six years and that they had started living together about six months after they met.
The couple had a son the year before Mr Lockhart – known to friends as Jamie – was killed and she said that they were both happy in their relationship and "financially comfortable".
But she added: "He would receive (warning) notices from the police to be careful and he knew the UVF were after him."
Mr Lockhart had been the subject of a previous gun attack, she said, and graffiti had been daubed around parts of Belfast alleging that he was an informer and claiming he was a "dead man walking".
