Massereene killer showed no remorse
A soldier and pizza delivery man who both survived the Real IRA gun attack at Massereene barracks in Antrim in 2009 have given evidence about the fatal shooting.
Mark Fitzpatrick – who quit the army after being badly injured in the attack – took the stand at the murder trial of co-accused Colin Duffy and Brian Shivers, at Antrim Crown Court on Tuesday afternoon.
He described how the Royal Engineer sappers had ordered pizza and then gone outside to collect it, recalling that he had spoken to the delivery man before he heard screaming.
Mr Fitzpatrick said that one of the victims, Patrick Azimkar, had been to his left and the second, Mark Quinsey, had been behind them. Then he heard someone say “Get down.”
He added: “As that happened, Pat (Azimkar) fell on top of me – I hit the floor and crawled round the car.”
Mr Fitzpatrick told the court how he tried to shield himself from the hail of bullets by getting into the pizza delivery man’s car and that he saw Mr Azimkar lying on the ground.
“When he saw me in the car, he opened fire,” he said. “It was an automatic, probably about 10 to 15 seconds of constant fire.”
Earlier, the trial heard that 63 spent ammunition cartridges and two live ones were found at the scene.
While Mr Fitzpatrick said he only saw one gunman, the court was shown CCTV footage on Monday which showed two masked attackers.
“Whoever it was wanted to cause damage and they finished him off before firing in at me,” Mr Fitzpatrick said. “There was no remorse. He knew what he was doing – he just seemed to do it all quick.”
Mr Fitzpatrick suffered gunshot wounds to his hand and shoulder, with one bullet puncturing his lung.
Sappers Azimkar, 21, from London, and Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, both died at the scene of the ambush.
Their relatives were visibly upset as details were recounted to the silent courtroom – on Monday, both grieving mothers had left the room as the CCTV footage was shown.
In the dock, Duffy and Shivers showed no emotion.
Polish pizza delivery man Mercin Wietrzynski was the first civilian to tell the court what he saw on the night of the shooting.
Through an interpreter, he described waking up in pain on the ground and realising he had been shot.
“I got hit in my hands and my back,” he said. “I had my legs broken, generally my whole legs were wounded.”
Duffy, aged 43 and from Forest Glade in Lurgan, and 46-year-old Shivers, from Sperrin Mews in Magherafelt, deny the murder charges and six further counts of attempted murder.
