Retired Supt. Derek Brown was giving evidence on the second day of the Inquest into the death of Dermot McShane, a separated man from Hollymount Park in the Waterside area of the city, who died on July 13, 1996 in Altnagelvin Hospital hours after he'd been run over by an eleven tonne Saxon vehicle during a weekend of rioting close to the city centre.

The Inquest was told that during disturbances in Derry linked to Orange Order parades in Drumcree and in Portadown, 1,200 petrol bombs were thrown at the security forces by rioters.

Mr. Brown told the jury that the rioting "was without doubt" one of the most ferocious riot situations that has ever occurred in this city.

"The police then did not have the fire retardant equipment available nowadays and there was a serious danger that police officers would be burnt alive", he told Coroner Brian Sherrard.

"The violence that weekend was just horrendous. I just couldn't put it into words", he added.

Mr. Brown said that because of Loyalist violence in Drumcree and in Portadown, officers under his command had been deployed to those areas with the result that police resouces in Derry were down to a minimum.

He said there had been neither an anticipation nor intelligence reports to indicate the extent of trouble which took place in Derry on the weekend of July 11, 12 and 13, 1996.

He said he had to call in officers who were scheduled to go on leave, officers who were normally deployed to clerical duties and reinforcements from Co. Fermanagh and that the police strategy over that weekend was re-active rather than proactive.

Mr. Brown described his decision to call in the British army as "a backward step because I didn't know what their capabilities in public order situations were and because they used a different radio channel to that used by the police".

Asked why he had not deployed snatch squads into the scene of the Little James Street to arrest rioters, Mr. Brown said that would not have been possible.

"There was no chance of arresting anyone in that situation because it was much too dangerous and the police and army could not be exposed to running into a crowd trying to arrest someone. That was just not practical. The police vehicles were being struck by petrol bombs and in those circumstances the police officers were trying to protect themselves and increasing the distance between themselves and the petrol bombers. In those circumstances running down the street to arrest someone was never an option", he said.

Mr. Brown said it was not his intention that the Saxon personnel carrier which crushed Mr. McShane to death should ever have been used for barricade removal purposes. It was, he said, positioned on police lines purely as a defensive measure.

Meanwhile the officer in charge of the seventy-five British soldiers deployed during the rioting said there was total confusion on the night Mr. McShane was killed.

"Lt. Col. Kieran Potts who was then officer commanding the First Battalion The Highlanders, said when he arrived at the scene of the rioting in Little James Street he saw up to 1,500 rioters throwing missiles at the police.

"I saw a Saxon pulling out and being driven towards a barricade in Little James Street. The crowd behind the barricade were attacking police lines.
They were throwing petrol bombs, bricks and iron bars.

"Twenty troops followed the Saxon. I followed them. I saw someone lying on the ground clutching his face. I saw two police officers rendering him medical assistance. The soldiers contained the rioters who continued to throw bricks and petrol bombs", he said.

"On the night in question I cannot emphasise enough how confusing the situation was. There was a lot of people shouting orders, it was dark, there were petrol bombers virtually beside us and a lot of orders were being passed by various levels of command", he said.

The Inquest continues.