AS Samar Salame watched her beloved daughter slip on her shoes and head out for groceries, it felt like any other Sunday morning.
But by the afternoon of that fateful day in May 2020, police were at her door with news that would shatter her world forever.
Her daughter, 19-year-old Aya Hachem, had been brutally gunned down in broad daylight in Blackburn, Lancs – her dreams of becoming a lawyer and changing the world stolen in an instant.
Why had she been targeted? How had such a bright young woman become the victim of such brutal violence?
The execution-style killing sent shock waves through the local community as detectives raced to unravel the mystery.
“We came here to the UK because it is safe,”;; heartbroken Samar explains in a gripping new documentary airing on 5 tonight.
“We never thought [that] shooting and gun would be in the UK.”;;
Recalling the last time she saw her daughter, she weeps: “She sat on the stairs, wears her shoes and shut the door and she went to Lidl. She didn’t come back.”;;
Police initially struggled to make sense of the crime – until a chilling discovery turned the case on its head.
Aya was never meant to die. She had been caught in the crossfire of a deadly business feud that had spiralled out of control.
The full horrifying story – and the race to bring her killers to justice – is laid bare in Murder Scene: The Incident Room.
Tyre firm boss Feroz Suleman, 40, had orchestrated the execution of a rival businessman.
But in a horrific twist of fate, the gunman he hired struck Aya instead – just as she was picking up groceries.
“Some would say she was in the wrong place at the wrong time – I completely disagree with that,”;; says Detective Superintendent Andy Cribbin.
“She was doing what she should have been doing and what she should be able to do.”;;
Officers seized 120 phones and trawled through 88,000 hours of CCTV footage to eventually snare Suleman and his seven accomplices, who were jailed in 2021.
“This is the most complex investigation I've ever worked on,”;; DSI Cribbin adds. “It was one of those moments where everything conspired against Aya.
“It could have been any of us walking the streets that day.”;;
Gunned down
Heartbreakingly, Aya’s family had fled Lebanon in fear of violence – with no idea they would find it in Blackburn, Lancashire.
On the day of her murder, May 17, 2020, she had woken early and agreed to go shopping for Samar.
At around 3pm officers from Lancashire Police received a 999 call from Pachah Khan reporting a drive-by shooting outside his tyre shop, Quickshine, on Kings Street, Blackburn.
A rapid response team raced to the scene and the body was identified as Salford University graduate Aya.
“Was this a targeted attack? Was this an attack on somebody else? These are the questions that come into the mind,”;; another investigator, DCI Zoe Russo, recalls.
A family liaison officer was sent to break the news of Aya’s death to her loved ones.
“I [started] to scream,”;; Samar says. “I fell down on the floor.”;;
Complex investigation
Nothing in Aya’s movements or background pointed to anything suspicious – and DSI Cribbin turned to the 999 call from Pachah for clues.
In harrowing audio of Pachah’s call, he reveals he was the target, explaining: “They [were] holding a gun on me, you know, when they came around I said ‘what?’ and they started shooting on me.
“She was just walking around...”;;
An operator replies: “So you think that they were shooting at you initially, and then caught her instead?”;;
She sat on the stairs, wears her shoes and shut the door and went to Lidl…she didn't come back
Samar Salame
The recording triggered more questions for DSI Cribbin.
“As an investigator I’m thinking ‘how does he know they’re aiming for him’?”;; he explains.
“As a key witness we’ve got to get detectives there to speak to him and understand what’s gone on. Why does think he’s a target?”;;
Officers gathered CCTV from local businesses and found the event had been captured from multiple angles. Two shots had been fired, with the first hitting the glass at Quickshine.
Footage also showed Aya walking nearby.
“Just as the [car] is passing Aya on the street […] this is literally a split second before Aya is shot,”;; DSI Cribbin says.
The footage helped police determine that the incident had been a drive-by shooting, with two in the car – a driver and, in the back, the gunman – but that Aya was not the intended victim.
Crucially, they were also able to identify the vehicle – a silver Toyota Avensis.
All cops in the area were drafted in to hunt down the car. It was found abandoned on Wellington Road, less than a mile from the murder scene.
Unusually for this type of crime, the dumped car had not been burned out – likely because the killers had not had time, DCI Russo says – leaving forensic evidence to be examined.
Forensic teams found a bullet in the backseat, confirming this was the killers’ car.
Bad blood
Investigators also established that there was bad blood between Quickshine and a neighbouring garage, RI Tyres.
“Quickshine used to be a car wash company that then started selling tyres, which upset RI Tyres,”;; DSI Cribbin says.
“There have been fallouts between the staff there.”;;
Police had previously received reports of workers squaring up to each other and throwing scrap metal at each others’ garages.
The local neighbourhood policing team had made attempts to resolve the dispute, to no avail.
“It was simmering in the background but [there had been] nothing to suggest that it would escalate to a drive-by shooting and kill somebody,”;; DSI Cribbin adds.
RI Tyres was run by Feroz Suleman, who had a YouTube channel where he shared footage from his garage – but background checks did not suggest a link to the killing.
Yet CCTV from his own security cameras suggested he was involved.
DSI Cribbin says of the footage: “Other people are dialling 999, they’re shocked at what’s gone on.
“Feroz is there, he’s watching it, he doesn’t ring an ambulance […] we would say he knows what’s going to happen and he’s waiting for those shots to be fired.”;;
Police arrested Suleman – and several members of his staff – and subsequently charged him with murder and attempted murder.
But they needed to prove his connection to the gunman and driver, who were both at large.
Then, in a huge breakthrough, police were able to identify the duo’s getaway vehicle. CCTV showed the two people leaving the Toyota Avensis and getting in a blue Ford Fiesta.
Officers identified the registration plate and Judith Chapman and Uthman Satia as the owner and driver of the Fiesta.
They used CCTV footage and ANPR [automatic number plate recognition] to place the pair in a residential area of Bolton before the murder.
There, video showed the gunman and driver enter the vehicle.
The CCTV footage was shared across the north west, and officers in Manchester identified Anthony Ennis as one of the individuals.
A known criminal, he had convictions for handling stolen vehicles, arson and possession of weapons.
Snaring the mastermind
Police now had to prove there had been a conspiracy to murder Pachah Khan – and that Suleman had been connected.
Phone records demonstrated that Suleman had been in contact with Ennis, Chapman and Satia.
Suleman had also been in touch with another unknown number – and, by contacting the phone company, they worked out the sim card had been bought in Stockport.
CCTV footage from the shop revealed the number belonged to Zamir Raja, 33.
Raja had a string of convictions for drugs, theft and violence.
“He’s very well-known, he’s an active criminal and a very violent male,”;; DSI Cribbin says.
Some would say she was in the wrong place at the wrong time – I completely disagree with that…She was doing what she should have been doing and what she should be able to do
Detective Superintendent Andy Cribbin
Phone data also revealed that he and Suleman were directly connected to one another – and had met and spoken before Aya’s murder.
A manhunt was triggered, but investigators faced a new obstacle as by this time Raja and Ennis had fled to Portugal, CCTV from Glasgow Airport showed.
“If they move on to other countries it will be quite difficult to not only track their movements but also extradite them back to the UK,”;; DCI Russo explains.
“So, really, the race is on for us now to identify where they are, arrest them, and bring them back as soon as we can.”;;
Interpol were soon on the suspects’ tail – and found they had moved to Spain.
Two weeks on from the murder, police discovered that Raja had hired a car in Portugal and driven it back to London.
Met Police officers covertly tracked Raja’s movements, before arresting him at Euston Station. Body-worn cameras show the moment he is seized.
“To actually get the man who pulled the trigger, is very satisfying,”;; DCI Russo says.
Meanwhile, Spanish police put out an international arrest warrant for Ennis – and, within 24 hours, had him in custody.
On May 17, 2021 – exactly one year after Aya was killed – Suleman, Raja and Ennis stood trial at Preston Crown Court, charged with murder.
Getting justice
Raja admitted manslaughter, but maintained he’d only intended to scare Quickshine boss Pachah, not kill him. Suleman denied involvement.
“Suleman tried to deflect any culpability, he showed no remorse in court […] despite the weight of evidence against him,”;; DCI Russo says.
Yet Suleman, 40, was convicted of murder and jailed for life, with a minimum of 34 years.
Gunman Zamir Raja, 33, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 34 years.
The court heard Suleman paid Raja £1,500 to travel from Manchester to shoot Pachah Khan.
A further five men were found guilty of murder for their part in the conspiracy: Kashif Manzoor, 26, Ayaz Hussain, 36, Abubakr Satia, 32, Anthony Ennis, 31, and Uthman Satia, 29. They were also jailed for life.
Judith Chapman was found guilty of manslaughter and jailed to 15 years.
While there is “some sense of relief”;; for Aya’s family that her killers are in jail, their pain lives on.
Now I lost her, there is no life…it’s very hard to see some girls her age, they get married, they are working, they start their own lives – but she’s not here
Samar Salame
“Now I lost her, there is no life,”;; Samar says. “It’s very hard to see some girls her age, they get married, they are working, they start their own lives – but she’s not here.”;;
Aya’s body was flown back to Lebanon for burial, and moving footage shows loved ones carrying her coffin through the street as onlookers cover it with petals.
“I remember how good of a sister she was and what was taken from us,”;; her brother Ibrahim says.
“The anger only just grows bigger and bigger. They took a beautiful person away from, not just us, the world, to be honest. She had so much potential.”;;
Murder Scene: The Incident Room airs on 5 on Wednesday 2nd April, 8pm.
