A shooting victim asked his best friend to apologise to his mother for “every bad thing he had ever done” as he bled to death in a block of flats, a court heard.

Mahmood Jama, 21, was blasted in the chest with a shotgun by 18-year-old rival Mohamed Ali in a turf war.

As he lay dying in Whyteville House, in Upton Lane, Forest Gate, he told his friend Abdi Hussain to take revenge on his behalf. “He wanted me to apologise to his mum for every bad thing he had ever done in his life,” Mr Hussain told the Old Bailey.

“To tell his sisters he loves them, say sorry to his brothers. And he asked me to make sure I got revenge.”

Mr Hussain told the court Mr Jama and Ali “had seen each other in the area a couple of times” but they had been arguing in the days before the shooting.

Mr Jama and Mr Hussain had grown up in east London but Ali, known as Trav, was known to be from south of the river.

In the hours before the shooting in the early hours of January 6 last year Ali had been threatening Mr Jama in a series of phone calls.

Mr Jama, who was nicknamed Sheena, had been unhappy Ali was in east London, it was said.

“He’s not from our area,” Mr Hussain told the court. “It’s all political. There is no reason for him to be there.”

Jurors were told the victim and Mr Hussain had been out with friends on the night of January 5 and would regularly hang out in and around Whyteville House.

They were in the car park of a nearby car wash when they spotted Ali brandishing a large, single-barrel shotgun.

“Something was said by Trav, I don’t know what it was,” said Mr Hussain.

“Sheena stopped and I caught up with him. I see something go in the air and I heard a loud bang.”

The gunman then ran in to the flats and Mr Hussain followed, along with Mr Jama. CCTV footage showed him entering the flats shortly after 1am.

He said: “He was shouting and threatening us, saying he was going to shoot us. I didn’t think he was capable of it to be honest.”

He told the court he caught up with Ali on the first floor landing and began grappling with him for the gun.

“Sheena grabbed me and pushed me out of the way a bit and I just heard a bang,’ said Mr Hussain.

“I looked at myself first and realised I wasn’t hit and then I saw Sheena. I could see blood. He was screaming “I got shot”.’

Ali ran off but left a trail of blood after being cut with a knife wielded by Mr Hussain.

Mr Jama, who lived in Plaistow, died just two hours later.

The court heard that Ali had travelled by taxi with Maurice Lewis, 19, and a third friend - both of whom waited while the shooting took place.

Just a short while earlier Ali called for another taxi to take him Little Ilford Lane and the driver saw him “pick up an object in a bag from a man in the road”

Ali was also heard by the taxi driver telling his friends: “They don’t known me, they think I am a coward. I can defend myself. I am a Somali guy.”

In the aftermath of the shooting, which happened during the heavy snowfall of last year, it is alleged Ali’s friend Lewis helped him get rid of the weapon and then escape to Southend, in Essex.

Of Lewis, prosecutor Anthony Edis QC said: “The prosecution allege that Mr Lewis, knowing that Mr Ali had committed a murder or some other serious offence, nevertheless helped him to get away, knowing that he was a guilty man.”

It is claimed Lewis ordered a taxi for Ali after the shooting and “hiding him with the intent to impede apprehension or prosecution”.

Ali, of no fixed address, denies murder and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Lewis, of Haselmere Road, Ilford, denies assisting an offender.

The trial continues.