Murder accused claims he was attacked by Sheffield solicitor Khuram Javed before the lawyer was shot dead

Sheffield Crown Court has heard during an ongoing trial how 20-year-old Tinashe Kampira and a 19-year-old man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, have denied murdering solicitor Khuram Javed after he was shot three times and stabbed on a footpath near Bramall Lane, Sheffield, on April 10, last year.

Mr Javed’s friend Kais Raja said he had alerted Mr Javed and three other friends because he was concerned the defendants and another man had been acting suspiciously around his VW Golf car and the court heard they followed these men on foot before gunshots were heard.

But business student Tinashe Kampira told the jury he and his friends had been “chilling” around the Anchor Point apartments and he had been admiring Mr Raja’s VW Golf before an Audi pulled up and four intimidating men got out.

Mr Kampira said: “We thought we were being chased. We were really focused on getting away. We didn’t see who was chasing us. At that point we was looking to go in any direction.

"We were just looking to get out of the way. We didn’t know what they wanted because we weren’t causing any trouble.”

Mr Kampira said he did not realise the cars had been driving near them before they ran from the group and he claimed he was kicked to the ground and in the ribs by Mr Javed before they started scuffling.

He claimed he saw a knife on the ground and picked it up and that as Mr Javed tried to grab him he swung his hands about until he heard gunshots.

Mr Kampira said: “As I picked it up Khuram grabbed his hands around me like a bear hug. I was swinging my hands about and then I started hearing shots.”

He added it could not have been his friends that fired the gun because they “were not on the scene when that occurred”.

Mr Kampira conceded he may have injured Mr Javed in self-defence.

He said he called a taxi and he and his friends went to Graves Park before someone came in a car and dropped him at home.

Mr Kampira denied that he was armed with the knife throughout and that his 19-year-old friend had a gun but he admitted lying to police that he had been at home.

Defence barrister Frances Hertzog claimed Mr Javed’s friend Nabeel Abdul had fired a gun as a warning shot and accidentally killed his friend Mr Javed which he has denied.

The 19-year-old and Mr Kampira, whose address cannot be reported for legal reasons, have pleaded not guilty to murder and to possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Mrs Justice Lambert directed the jury to acquit co-accused Atif Mohammed, aged 20, of Sharrow Lane, Sharrow, Sheffield, of murder and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life after she had already declared him unfit to be tried due to learning difficulties.

Two other defendants, Sohidul Mohamed, aged 24, and Saydul Mohammed, aged 22, both of The Greenway, Greenhill, Sheffield, have pleaded not guilty to assisting an offender after claims they had later transported the 19-year-old to Reading.

The trial continues.