Age: 31
Sex: male
Date: 18 May 2013
Place: Selborne Road, Hove
Xhem Krasniqi was shot once in the abdomen in Selborne Road, Hove.
A man was tried for his murder but acquitted on 3 February 2014. He was also cleared of having a firearm, said to have been a 9mm pistol.
He had been walking down the Selborne Road, Hove, just off Church Road at the time, around 11.30pm on 18 May 2013, with his brother and nephew when it was heard that a man fired several shots at them. Xhem Krasniqi's brother and nephew were unharmed, but Xhem Krasniqi was hit in the abdomen and died later in hospital. The nephew was also hit, but the bullet hit his wallet and ricocheted away leaving him unhurt.
The police said that they thought that his shooting had evolved through a dispute between two warring families and said that they thought that the men all knew each other.
On 22 May 2013 the police released the names of two men that they wanted to speak to about Xhem Krasniqi's murder. The two men were brothers aged 30 and 34 and were said to have had links to Brighten, with one of them, the suspected gunman, aged at the time 30 years, having dual British and Albanian nationality. However, the police executed several search warrants around Brighton and Hove but failed to find them. The police said that they also visited many of the cafes in the area frequented by the Albanian community.
The man that was tried for his murder had fled to Italy after the shooting but was later arrested by the Italian police in Milan and extradited back to the United Kingdom.
A man and woman were also arrested at Gatwick Airport on 26 May 2013 and the woman was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. They were both bailed, but both of their bail's were later stood down.
The man that was charged with the murder said that he had been chased by an armed gang, Xhem Krasniqi, his brother, and nephew, and that there had been a struggle with a gun and that it had gone off. He said that he thought the three men had wanted to kill him and claimed self-defence.
After the not guilty verdict was announced, the Brighton police said that they accepted the decision of the court.
Xhem Krasniqi had two children and worked in Kent as a scaffolder.
