Palm Islanders who were children when they were caught up in post-riot raids a decade ago have recalled thinking they were going to be shot, while one feared his father would be killed by police.
The fears were expressed in evidence given at a groundbreaking trial to determine whether alleged police failures following the 2004 death of Mulrunji Doomadgee on the Palm Island watchhouse floor were racially discriminatory.
Among the supposed failures outlined in a class action launched by once-jailed riot-inciter Lex Wotton on behalf of Palm Islanders is that the declaration of an emergency, subsequent raids and arrests without warrants were excessive.
Mr Wotton's son, Albert, told the Federal Court on Tuesday he was 12 years old when he saw his kneeling father, who had his hands behind his head, being Tasered.
"I thought he was going to die," Mr Wotton said on Tuesday.
"(I thought) what happened to Mulrunji was going to happen to my dad."
The health worker, who left school several times to help his mother after Mr Wotton went to jail, said he still becomes frightened because of the raids.
The events are also still raw for Krysten Harvey, who had to leave the courtroom as she gave testimony about her grandmother's house being raided.
She said police arrested a man at the house who had been in the shower and pointed guns at her.
"I don't know anything about guns but they were big," Ms Harvey, who was a teenager when her grandmother's house was raided, told the court.
"I was scared and I thought ... they was going to shoot me."
Albert Wotton also said he saw red dots from guns on his kitchen wall before masked police entered his family home.
But counsel for the state of Queensland, Mark Hinson QC, said police did not use weapons with lights that day and suggested Mr Wotton had been mistaken.
Earlier in the day, the court heard from Andrea Sailor, who saw about 24 police officers with helmets, shields and a dog marching past her house.
Outside court, Ms Sailor said the death in custody, riots and subsequent police investigation are still "very alive" for the islanders who were children at the time.
"Those kids are grown up now and I think they still carry those wounds," said Ms Sailor, who was an indigenous legal service field officer and daughter of the community's mayor at the time.
"I don't think it's gone away for them."
Justice Debbie Mortimer, who visited the sites of the riot and raids, will consider whether the state of Queensland should compensate the community.
The trial will continue, at a court set up at a Palm Island school, on Wednesday.
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