Hove murder accused tells court he thought he would be killed

The man accused of murdering a father of two by shooting him in a Hove street has told a jury that he acted in self defence.

Edmund Nela, 31, told the jury at Hove Crown Court that he thought that he was going to be shot by a man armed with a pistol.

Nela, from Brighton, is accused of shooting a fellow Albanian, Xhem Krasniqi, 31, a scaffolder from Strood, in Kent.

Nela told the court that he had met his wife when she finished work at a restaurant in Church Road in Hove.

They were heading home when he saw a man with a gun. He told his wife to leave.

Nela, a martial arts expert, said that a man with a pistol blocked his path and two armed men, one with a sword, got out of a car.

He thought that a drugs gang were going to kill him.

In Selborne Road, just off Church Road, he wrestled with the gunman and as he did so the pistol went off accidentally.

He disarmed the man and fired what he said were meant to be warning shots.

The prosecution case is that Nela did not act in self-defence but deliberately shot Mr Krasniqi and tried to kill his brother and nephew.

The trial continues.