Witness to Last US Firing Squad Execution Details 'Clinical' Way Utah Inmate Was Shot 5 Times: 'You Don't Ever Forget That'

The U.S. is expected to execute someone by firing squad Friday for the first time in 15 years.

Brad Sigmon, 67, has elected to have South Carolina execute him by firing squad rather than the electric chair or lethal injection. Sigmon was sentenced to die in 2002 for beating his ex-girlfriend's parents to death with a baseball bat. Sigmon also kidnapped the woman and planned to murder her but she was able to escape.

An eyewitness to the previous firing squad execution which was carried out in Utah in 2010 described the process to the Daily Mail as "extremely clinical" and something "You don't forget."

Journalist Jennifer Dobner told the newspaper that, at first, it was difficult to tell if Ronnie Lee Gardner had died after four bullets struck him and blood began seeping through his navy blue uniform. After two minutes he was declared dead.

"It's a very deliberate and purposeful act on the part of the state, and it was a very clinical situation, carried out with precision by the Department of Corrections and the five executioners," Dobner told the newspaper.

Gardner had been arrested on various crimes several times throughout his life when he faked an illness while in prison in 1984. He ssaulted and severely injured a guard at the hospital and escaped. While on the run, he tried to rob a bar and shot 37-year-old Melvyn Otterstrom in the face, killing him, the Salt Lake City Tribune reported. Authorities believe that the killing was an execution as there was no sign Otterstrom resisted.

Gardner was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. While headed to court, an accomplice handed Gardner a gun, and he attempted a dramatic escape from the courthouse, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. While attempting to get in an elevator, he happened upon attorney Michael Burdell, who he killed with a shot to his right eye. He then shot an unarmed bailiff in the abdomen. The bailiff survived, and Gardner was eventually surrounded and surrendered.

"He always does these horrendous things and then several days later wonders why everyone is so mad at him," a Utah Department of Corrections investigator told the newspaper. Gardner was a consistent problem for prison officials while incarcerated, including an incident in 1994 when he repeatedly stabbed a black inmate, the newspaper reported.

When it was time for his execution, Gardner waived his right to have family members there, saying he didn't want them to witness a "violent act," the Daily Mail reported.

The newspaper reported that Gardner was strapped down and a hood placed over his head. The five shooters out of view of the witnesses. Dobner told the newspaper that after he was shot, he continued to move, clenching and unclenching a fist.

"I was expecting to flinch, but I didn't,' she said of the gunfire that took her by surprise. 'It was so quick that for a split-second I wondered if it had actually happened," Dobner told the Daily Mail.