Mom-of-2 Fatally Shot Outside Church While Attending Wake By Liam Quinn

A British mother of two was attending a wake at a London church when she was killed in a drive-by shooting.

Michelle Sadio was standing outside the River of Life Elim Pentecostal Church in Harlesden, a district in Greater London, when she was shot in December 2024, the BBC reported.

Four men accused of murder in connection with the shooting that killed Sadio and injured two others are now on trial, the BBC and ITV reported.

Tahjin Sommersall, 19, Perry Allen-Thomas, 27, Shaquille Sutherland, 26, and Amir Salem, 19, are all charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder, according to the BBC and The Guardian. All four have denied the charges.

Per the BBC, authorities claim Sommersall was in the car during the shooting with two others, who allegedly fled the country after the shooting and have not been apprehended.

Allen-Thomas and Sutherland were not near the scene of the shooting but are accused of having orchestrated the violence, prosecutors alleged, 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 reportedly said.

Salem is accused of having bought some of the gasoline used to set the car on fire following the shooting, prosecutors alleged, according to the BBC.

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Prosecutors reportedly believe that a rapper was the intended target of the alleged shooting.

The BBC previously reported that Sadio had been attending the wake of an 80-year-old woman who died days before the alleged shooting.

Sadio, a legal administrator and mother of two, was shot in the back, lung and shoulder and was pronounced dead at the scene, the BBC reported. A man was paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in the back, while another man was shot in the foot.