WASHINGTON (AP) — A defense attorney told a federal jury on Wednesday that Iraqi national police removed evidence that would prove Blackwater security guards were being fired on by insurgents, prompting the guards to return fire in shootings that killed or wounded over 30 Iraqi civilians.

The assertion came in closing arguments at the guards’ trial that began in June. Prosecutor Anthony Asuncion told the federal jury that the Blackwater guards unleashed a hail of gunfire that left “bloody, bullet-riddled corpses” at Nisoor Square in downtown Baghdad seven years ago.