Hove shooting victim’s nephew was also hit by a bullet

A jury was shown the bullet-damaged wallet of a Brighton man who came under fire in a Hove street.

The wallet was in Kelmed Murataj’s pocket when it stopped the 9mm bullet.

Mr Murataj was the nephew of father of two Xhem Krasniqi, 31, who was shot dead in Selborne Road, off Church Road, Hove in May last year during the same incident.

Ballistics expert Khaldoun Kabbani found that the bullet had lodged in Mr Murataj’s wallet after passing through banknotes and coming to rest against a bank card.

It had ricocheted before hitting Mr Murataj’s wallet where it shattered his driving licence and other plastic cards. The ricochet took much of the force out of the shot.

Mr Kabbani told the jury at Hove Crown Court that at least three bullets had been fired.

And he said: “The deceased (Mr Krasniqi) was standing in the direct line of fire when the bullet struck him.”

The shots were fired after two Albanian families fell out.

Philip Bennetts, prosecuting, told the court that Mr Krasniqi, from Kent, his brother Ismail Zeneli and Mr Murataj, both from Brighton, came under fire when they got out of a car to talk to Nela.

Nela’s defence is that he was confronted by an armed man and wrestled the semi-automatic pistol from him and it went off accidentally.

He then fired it a couple more times in self-defence as he was about to be attacked by the other men but he did not take aim.

The jury also heard from Mr Krasniqi’s widow Lafteria Krasniqi. The couple had been married for ten years and had two young children.

She spoke emotionally about the last time that she saw her husband alive.