Mother Demands Justice One Year After Daughter’s Death by Stray Bullet in Marseille
A year after the death of Socayna, her eldest daughter, a 24-year-old student killed on September 10, 2023 by a stray bullet that crossed the wall of her room in the Saint-Thys neighborhood in Marseille, Leïla is having trouble mourning. Since the arrest and indictment for murder of a minor of 16 years old suspected of being the shooter of the burst that killed the young woman on a drug dealing point, nothing more. She denounces "the deafening silence of the authorities" and demands justice.
Deeply affected by the death of Socayna, Leïla, 62, is going through a difficult ordeal. "I am a living dead, I only survive for my other daughter (Sabrina, 15 years old), she confides to Le Parisien. The house is empty, terribly empty. Constantly, I think Socayna is going to knock on the door and sit with us in the kitchen. She was everything to me. She was my daughter, my sister, my confidante, my assistant. We exchanged and discussed a lot. When I came home from work in the evening, she would tell me about the books she was reading. She was very educated, she taught me a lot of things. I went to Rome, Saudi Arabia, to see if there is something after death, to understand if it is our destiny. It’s so unfair."
The 24-year-old student had been killed on the night of September 10, 2023 by a 7.62 Kalashnikov bullet fired from a scooter ridden by two men dressed in black as she was in her room in a Marseille housing project. Her mother recounts this overwhelming night. "It was a Sunday, around 10:45 p.m. I was in bed with my second daughter, Sabrina, because we only had two bedrooms. We heard gunshots. We looked out the window, but we didn’t see anything except smoke. I asked my daughter to close the windows. Sabrina went to look for a phone charger in her sister’s room. She knocked on the door. But Socayna didn’t answer. She finally pushed the door. And I heard her screams: Mum, mum, it’s flowing everywhere, everywhere! I rushed over, Socayna had a hole in her cheek. I took her in my arms, I knew she was going to die," Leïla recounts.
Her daughter Sabrina is trying her best to mourn. The death of her elder sister remains a difficult ordeal for her and her mother. "She is followed by a psychologist. She doesn’t say much, she has gained weight. I know I’m not there enough for her, for her studies. But Socayna is always on my mind, I’m looking for her. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to go on. Before, I worked, I was alive. Even the psychiatrist’s pills do nothing for me. There is no remedy for me. I wake up at night, devoured by questions. With Sabrina, we don’t have much dialogue. I have no more feelings. I can’t even get close to her, to hug her. It hurts me. My brain is saturated, I have no more room. We went to Morocco on vacation together, away from here. I had started talking to her. All the space is taken up by Socayna. I hide from Sabrina to cry. The only thing I’m waiting for is for the murderers to be tried, convicted, punished. But it’s so long," adds the sexagenarian.
Last February, a 16-year-old minor suspected of being the shooter of the burst that killed Socayna on a drug dealing point was arrested and indicted for murder. The suspect and his relatives were "very widely involved in drug trafficking," the prosecutor said. The young student would be a collateral victim of a settling of scores between traffickers. This annoys Leïla that justice presents the shooter as a minor. "It annoys me when I hear the term ’minor’. He’s a criminal, a murderer, period. A minor, normally, he’s at school, not in the projects with a Kalashnikov. He made a choice. It’s also the parents’ fault, who let their children roam the streets. It’s their responsibility too," she denounces. Since the murder of the young woman, "nothing has changed," according to the victim’s mother. Disgusting. "Nothing has changed. There are still murders, innocent victims, collateral victims everywhere in France. Many elected officials came to see me. But what have they done since? My daughter left for free. These last few days, I haven’t received a phone call. It’s total silence, except for a few associations that contact me. The State, the city have forgotten Socayna. In fact, she was just a number, her death made the news, and then nothing, as if we had been asked to move on. But it’s impossible," she continues.
Leïla demands justice for her daughter. In the meantime, she is organizing a white march this Saturday, September 14 in the Joliette district of Marseille, to pay tribute to Socayna, reports La Provence.