A British mother of two was attending a wake at a London church when she was fatally shot in a drive-by attack, prosecutors say.
Michelle Sadio was standing outside the River of Life Elim Pentecostal Church in Harlesden, an area of Greater London, when gunfire erupted in December 2024, according to the BBC.
Four men — Tahjin Sommersall, 19; Perry Allen-Thomas, 27; Shaquille Sutherland, 26; and Amir Salem, 19 — are now on trial accused of murder and two counts of attempted murder, the BBC, ITV, and The Guardian reported. All four have pleaded not guilty.
Authorities allege Sommersall was inside the vehicle during the shooting alongside two other men who fled the country afterward and have not been arrested, the BBC reported. Prosecutors also claim Allen-Thomas and Sutherland were not at the scene but helped organize the attack, according to the BBC and ITV.
“In short, the prosecution alleges that Sutherland and Allen-Thomas got the three younger men to do their dirty work for them,” prosecutor Crispin Aylett said, per reports.
Salem is accused of buying some of the gasoline allegedly used to set the car on fire after the shooting, prosecutors said, according to the BBC.
Investigators believe the intended target may have been a rapper, the BBC reported.
The BBC previously reported that Sadio had been at the wake of an 80-year-old woman who had died days before the shooting. Sadio, who worked as a legal administrator, was shot in the back, lung, and shoulder and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the BBC.
Two other people were injured in the attack. A man was left paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in the back, and another man was shot in the foot, the BBC reported.
