Named officers who have given evidence to the inquest are:
DCS Bunn - acting Commander of the armed anti-terrorist branch SO13 at the time and in overall charge of the operation. DCS Bunn told the inquest that there was nothing to learn from the case and that he would not do things differently in a similar situation. He would not agree that Diarmuid should have been carried from the premises rather than dragged down several flights of steps. He did accept, however, that the firearms and detonators found in storage had been rendered harmless before the arrest and that the room in which Diarmuid was staying had been searched throughly beforehand and that no weapons or explosives found.
DC Bunn also stated that the arrest plan had been changed several times, saying that it was impractical to carry out arrests of the ASU in the street. He authorised CS gas despite the fact that he had not been trained in its use, and was unaware of the different types of gas. He was also unaware of the police's own guidelines that CS gas should not be used against any subject suspected of carrying a weapon.
DCI Michael Jones - SO13. DCI Jones also admitted that the room had been searched two or three times and nothing found. Further, he accepted that evidence from surveillance equipment gave no reason to suspect that there were weapons or explosives held in the room. He claimed that the security services had told him that they heard a Browning being `racked'. This transpired to be the sound of a can of coke being opened, but this information was not properly disseminated. He also told other police officers a few hours before the raid that the suspects had hand grenades in the room. Their location was in the storage facility and this had been confirmed by the security services. DCI Jones insisted that, despite all this, he still felt that there were explosives in the room. During cross-examination, he also confirmed that at the briefing session before the raid he had told police officers that the suspects may have been in possession of an automatic weapon.
Alwyn Jones - responsible for searching the premises after the shooting and arrests. Jones told the court that he was unable to enter the room until the following afternoon because of the intolerable level of CS gas, despite bringing in fans in an attempt to clear it. Under cross-examination, he agreed that it would have been possible to arrest subjects in the street and that he had taken part in four such cases.
DC Waldron - senior officer in charge of SO19. DC Waldron confirmed that he had suggested that CS gas be added to the plan. He also said that until shortly before the raid that plans had included arresting the subjects in the street.
DC Williams - SO19 support for the anti-terrorist squad. He admitted that the arrests could have taken place in street if desired. He said that instructions for the use of CS gas came very late. Four hours before the raid, he was told the suspects had been tampering with floorboards, building barricades and mention of a hand grenade was heard, all of which was subsequently exposed as nonsense. Although he stated that the amount of CS gas used was calculated from photos and descriptions of the premises, Williams conceded that he could not in fact make any valid calculations because he did not know the concentration of the gas.
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