- ‘Murder Scene: The Incident Room’ airs on 5 tomorrow evening at 8pm
The mother of a law student mistakenly gunned down in a botched drive-by shooting has told how she screamed and fell to the floor upon being told she had been killed.
Aya Hachem, 19, who dreamed of becoming a solicitor, had fled from violence in her native Lebanon as a child to settle with her family in Blackburn, Lancashire.
Miss Hachem was shot on May 17, 2020 while on a trip to a nearby supermarket to buy food for when her family would break their Ramadan fast that evening.
The Salford University international law student died in hospital after a bullet entered her left shoulder, passed through her body and embedded itself in a telegraph pole.
Tyre firm boss Feroz Suleman had arranged the execution of a rival businessman in broad daylight but the gunman he hired instead shot dead innocent Miss Hachem.
The case features in the first episode of a new four-part series of the documentary ‘Murder Scene: The Incident Room’ which airs on 5 tomorrow evening at 8pm.
Speaking in the programme, Miss Hachem’s mother Samar Salame told how the family fled Lebanon because of the threat of violence – but it followed them to the UK.
She said: ‘From 2011 we were living there in Blackburn. It looked like a safe place and we came here to the UK because it’s safe. Our country is not a safe place to us.
‘We never thought like, shooting and gun will be in the UK. But there is no safe, no safety there or anywhere.’
Speaking about the final time she saw Miss Hachem, Ms Salame added: ‘I was at home, it was during Ramadan. I called her from her room – she woke up early – ‘Can you please go to bring me some stuff?’ And she said ‘Yes, I will go’.
‘She sat on the stairs, wore her shoes and shut the door and went to Lidl. She didn’t come back.’
Then, emotionally recalling the moment a police officer broke the news of her death, Ms Salame said: ‘They told us what happened. I started to scream.
‘I fell down on the floor. We didn’t believe what’s happened. Only took five minutes and she left us.’
Miss Hachem’s father, Ismail Hachem, who does not appear in the documentary, fled violence in Lebanon in 2010 after he was persecuted for being a member of the army.
His family joined him in the UK the following year amid fears for their lives and moved around the country before they finally settled in Blackburn.
Ms Salame said that Miss Hachem wanted to be a lawyer to ‘help others’, adding that she studied ‘very hard through the years, especially the last year of her life’.
She continued: ‘She really is an angel. She took care of me, of her dad, brothers and her sister. Because of our situation she was the one who stood beside me, to help me, to support me. And now I’ve lost her.
‘There is no life. I’m not living. I’m not alive anymore, I’m like only a body without a soul. It’s very hard to see young ladies in her age. Some of them, they get married. They are working, they start their own lives. But she’s not here.’
Ibrahim Hachem, Miss Hachem’s brother, also spoke of his grief at life without his sister.
He said: ‘I remember how good of a sister she was and what was taken from us. The anger and sadness just grows bigger and bigger. Just took a beautiful person away from, not just us, the world, to be honest. She had so much potential.’
In August 2021, Suleman, then 40, of Blackburn, was ordered to serve a minimum of 34 years before he could be considered for parole.
The gunman, Zamir Raja, 33, of Stretford, was jailed for a minimum of 34 years and his driver, Anthony Ennis, 31, of Partington, for at least 33 years.
Accomplices Ayaz Hussain, 36, of Blackburn; Abubakr Satia, 32, of Blackburn; his brother, Uthman Satia, 29, of Great Harwood; and Kashif Manzoor, 26, of Blackburn, were handed minimum terms of 32 years, 28 years, 28 years and 27 years, respectively.
Mr Hachem also told the documentary about the killers and their families ‘laughing’ during proceedings at Preston Crown Court.
He said: ‘What kind of vile beings are you? They were laughing in court, the families were laughing with them. What type of people are you? How can you be so disrespectful, so vile.
‘How can you be so materialistic? Fighting just because of money. You’ve already got enough, you’re already doing well in life. Why do all this?’
However, Mr Hachem added that there was ‘some sense of relief’ when the sentences were handed down – and ‘hopefully they are not going to get out before they are old or dead’.
The intended target in the shooting was Pachah Khan, 31, owner of Quickshine Car Wash, who angered Suleman, the boss of neighbouring RI Tyres, when his business began to sell tyres and became a direct competitor.
A bitter feud developed and Suleman ordered the execution of Mr Khan, telling his ally Hussain to recruit an assassin.
Manchester-based hitman Raja and his driver Ennis were assigned the task.
Abubakr Satia sourced a silver Toyota Avensis for just £300, financed by his friend Suleman, which was used by Raja and Ennis on the day of the shooting.
Judy Chapman, 26, who was convicted of manslaughter for her involvement, drove the gunman and driver from Bolton with her boyfriend, Uthman Satia, as front-seat passenger. She then collected the pair after the shooting.
Manzoor ensured the unreliable Avensis was able to be used after he jump-started the vehicle and left the engine running.
Giving evidence at the 12-week trial, divorced father-of-two Suleman denied any knowledge of a plot to kill Mr Khan and said Quickshine selling tyres had no impact on his business.
However, Amazon driver Hussain told jurors that Suleman wanted Mr Khan ‘roughed up’ and introduced him to Raja who suggested a drive-by with shots fired in the air to scare him.
Suleman was quoted a price of £1,500 and excitedly agreed straight away, said Hussain, who claimed there was no plan to kill.
Raja initially said he had nothing to do with the shooting and had arrived in Blackburn for a drugs deal, but during the trial he admitted he fired the gun, although he refused to return to the witness box to explain his intent.
Cannabis dealer Ennis, known as ‘Sarge’ by his North Manchester customers, said he thought the trip to East Lancashire involved ‘s**ting some people up and making them leg it’. He said he did not know Raja had a firearm, thought to be a Glock pistol.
Manzoor and the Satia brothers told the jury they were all innocent dupes, with cocaine addict Uthman Satia claiming he thought he was transporting two men for a test drive of the Avensis.
But the jury took less than four hours to reject their version of events and convict the seven male defendants of the murder of Miss Hachem and the attempted murder of Mr Khan.
Raja, who tried to pursue his payment after the killing, apologised for lying when giving evidence. In a letter to the judge, he said he was ‘in denial’ and said he would forever live with ‘shame and regret’.
Chapman, of Great Harwood, was jailed for 15 years at a later sentencing hearing in October 2021 after she was found guilty of the manslaughter of Miss Hachem. She was cleared of murder and attempted murder.
Around 18 months later in March 2023, Junior Otway, 42, of Manchester, was convicted of murder and the attempted murder of intended target Mr Khan after a separate trial.
But Suhayl Suleman, 39, of Blackburn, who was also on trial for murder and attempted murder, was cleared of both charges.
Murder Scene: The Incident Room, Wednesday 2nd April 8pm. Watch | Stream on 5
