Kemp Town shooting CCTV shown to jury

Kai Palmer shot at the unnamed man with an antique pistol – loaded with bullets allegedly forged by Savanna Harby – during an argument in Rock Place, Kemp Town, last October.

The gun backfired, and nobody was hurt.

This morning, the jury was also shown a police interview with Harby in which she said the row was over drugs money owed by her mother.

Palmer, 22, has admitted a string of firearms charges, but Harby, 19, denies possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and possessing prohibited ammunition.

At her trial this morning, Hove Crown Court was shown CCTV which shows Palmer brandishing the gun, and then a puff of smoke as it went off.

But the antique pistol – which Harby had bought for £250 as a present for her father – backfired, and the man was unharmed.

The court also heard from Linda Gunn, who had been loading waste into a van with her husband when the attack happened.

Mrs Gunn said she had heard what she thought was a drunken argument at the top of the street, and had then heard the victim – a black man – say: “F*** off I don’t even know you.”

She said she saw the black man pick up a traffic cone, and then heard two shots.

She said: “The black man said ‘They shot at me’ and I said I know.

“I did wonder if I was next because I was the only person between him and the seafront.”

As Palmer passed her, she saw him carrying a small silver gun and a larger black gun.

She said: “The black man was shaking like hell, an absolute bag of nerves … I grabbed hold of him to stop him giving chase.

“Everybody was hanging out of the windows.”

The court was also shown pictures of two blue carrier bags found stashed on the roof of Gulliver’s Hotel in New Steine, next to a room Palmer was staying at when he was arrested four days after the attack.

The bags were found to contain ammunition and the antique American Colt pistol used in the attack.

On November 3, Harby was arrested at a house in Golden Lane off Western Street in Brighton.

The jury was also shown Harby’s police interview, during which she spoke at length about how she had used a blowtorch, wet sand and lead to forge her own home made bullets to fit the antique gun, which she had bought from a shop in The Lanes.

She said her mum “put drug deal stuff in my name”, and she had taken it out with her for protection, adding: “I’m an 18-year-old girl with no protection against big people who could do anything.”

Talking about the day of the attack, she said the man, who she called S Man, had confronted her and then drawn a machete on them, threatening them.

Palmer took out the gun, and she told police she had grabbed, not realising he had pulled back the safety catch, and that it had gone off accidentally.

She said the gun had backfired, and when she and Palmer tried to pick it up afterwards, it was burning hot.

However, police then showed her the CCTV which showed it going off while Palmer aimed it at the other man.

The trial continues.