A hospital care worker was killed when she was caught in the crossfire of a “Wild West-style” shoot-out between two teenagers, a jury was told yesterday.

Magda Pniewska, 26, died instantly from a single bullet wound to the head as she took her shopping home after finishing work at a nursing home in southeast London.

She was on her mobile phone speaking to her sister, Elzbieta Luby, in Poland, when three gunshots rang out. When Ms Luby asked what was going on, Ms Pniewska replied: “Hold on a second.” A moment later she was hit.

Opening the case for the prosecution, Brian Altman, QC, told the Old Bailey that the sister in Poland listened to the fatal shot before hearing “a delicate, quiet moan or exhalation of breath and the sound of falling or rustling bags” before two further shots rang out. Mr Altman continued: “Ms Pniewska hadn’t been the intended target of that bullet, but in scenes reminiscent of the Wild West, Magda was to become the innocent victim of a gunfight between two young men who were total strangers to her.

“She was simply in the wrong place, at the wrong time.”

He said that two armed 17-year-old youths who were “hell bent on killing each other” had met near the nursing home in New Cross to settle a score over money in October last year.

One of those youths, who cannot be named for legal reasons, went on trial yesterday charged with the murder of Ms Pneiwska and the attempted murder of the other teenager.

Police have been unable to gather enough evidence against the second youth to charge him, Mr Altman said.

Ms Pniewska, who dedicated her life to helping the sick, had finished her 9am to 6pm shift at the Manley Court Nursing Home and was in “good spirits”. Laden with her shopping bags, she made her way up some steps on a shortcut over fields towards her house.

Meanwhile, the defendant told people he knew parked in a Volkswagen Polo car that he was looking for a man wearing a red bandana, Mr Altman claimed.

The defendant was said to have appeared “hyped” but, with a “big grin on his face”, drew his gun and opened fire when he spotted his target. Mr Altman said that the defendant crouched and fired over the top of the car before running away and shooting as he turned back.

Police and ballistic experts collected parts of at least five or six bullets from the scene.

Four days later the defendant was arrested and denied being at the scene. He later told police that he was on the estate and was armed with a gun but had only fired in the air as a warning to the other gunman.

Mr Altman said it was “almost certain” that Ms Pniewska was not killed by a bullet from the defendant’s gun, but this did not “absolve him from criminal responsibility” for the murder.

“He was party to the use of unlawful violence between himself and the other youth by means of the discharge of prohibited weapons with the intent to kill,” he said.

After being found slumped on the stairs, Ms Pniewska was taken to King’s College Hospital but there was nothing that could be done and she was pronounced dead at 7.40pm.

The defendant, who was born on the Ivory Coast and is from Streatham Hill, southwest London, denies murder, attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. He has admitted possession of a prohibited firearm.

The trial continues.

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