Andrew Morton died after being shot while walking with his brother

Mark Bonini, 27, faces 16 charges at the High Court in Glasgow, including firearms offences.

Andrew, aged two, died in March after being hit in the head by an airgun pellet while walking in the Craigend area of the city with his brother.

Mr Bonini denies murder but pleaded guilty to culpable homicide. This was rejected by the Crown.

The first witness, taxi driver Joseph Symington, said he heard a noise as he dropped off a woman in Cambusdoon Place, Craigend, on 20 February.

Running away

The 43-year-old said: "It was just like a sound of a whip cracking off the side of the taxi's passenger door.

"I basically knew what it was - it was a pellet from a slug gun."

He saw a man and a teenager wearing a Burberry cap running away, but did not see a weapon.

Another taxi driver, John Campbell, told the court about a separate incident a few days before the shooting of Andrew Morton.

He seemed to be shooting at a lamp post with a bicycle tyre hanging on top of it John Campbell Witness

After the toddler's death he told police how he saw a man with an air rifle shooting from a first floor window in the same area.

"He seemed to be shooting at a lamp post with a bicycle tyre hanging on top of it," he said.

"It was the tyre he was shooting at and he certainly fired more than one shot."

Asked if he could identify the man, he pointed at Mr Bonini.

The 27-year-old denies murdering Andrew Morton by shooting him in the head on 2 March, and hitting firefighter Alan Lambert repeatedly on the body shortly beforehand.

False statements

Mr Bonini also pleads not guilty to committing a breach of the peace by taking pot shots at windows, birds, a car and a tyre from a flat at Cambusdoon Road, endangering the lives of various unidentified adults and schoolchildren.

He also denies supplying amphetamine, being in possession of cocaine and a sword and attempting to pervert justice by giving false statements to police and disposing of an air rifle by handing it to another man.