What else could she have done to save the love of her life? This, says Aasiyah Allie, is the recurring question that haunts her after her husband, Mujaheed, was gunned down in front of her.
The gunman would have taken her life too if his gun hadn’t jammed, says 31-year-old Ms Allie, as she described the fateful events in Salt River on Saturday November 16.
“I am really not doing so well, but I want to tell my story,” she said.
According to her, Mujaheed, a Salt River businessman, received a text message earlier that afternoon from someone calling himself “Fubu” asking to meet in Voortrekker Road, Salt River, at around 7pm, to borrow some money.
“If you read the text messages, this person wanted to wait for me as well to come from work so that I can bring Mujaheed. So whoever it was probably also planned to take me out,” Ms Allie said.
The couple were waiting in the car when a man appeared at the driver-side of the vehicle where Ms Allie was seated.
“He first came around the driver’s side, and I still asked him if he was the guy, but he never answered, and he walked around and then made his way back to the driver’s side where he took out the gun,” Ms Allie said.
The gunman had fired several shots into the car, narrowly missing her face, she said, describing how the bullets had made “whipping” noises as they had hit her husband in the back.
“He was already halfway out of the car, but that is when the gunman shot him in the back. It was then that the shooter ran around and shot through the windscreen, where he thought he got me.”
Ms Allie said she had jumped over the passenger seat to throw herself in front of her husband as the gunman had tried to shoot him in the face.
“He pointed the gun at my head, because he thought he had finished the job earlier, but the gun jammed and instead, he took the gun and hit me over the head and over my body,” she said, adding that the gunman had then fled.
According to Ms Allie, a nearby group of men, including one of her husband’s cousins, had caught the man and beat him before handing him over to the police.
Provincial police spokesperson Warrant Officer Joseph Swartbooi said a 26-year-old man was in custody in connection with the incident.
He said Woodstock police had responded to the complaint in Salt River and upon arrival in Voortrekker Road, at around 7.35pm, they were informed that the victim had sustained multiple gunshots and had been rushed to a nearby hospital with private transport.
Ms Allie said she was left wondering what she could have done differently to have possibly saved her husband’s life.
“I would’ve driven away, but I couldn’t because he (Mujaheed) was halfway out of the passenger door. I would have held on tighter to the gunman if I could. I would’ve never stopped there,” she said, bursting into tears.
“He was the greatest man I ever met. He loved me so much, and I loved him so much. My whole life has changed because he was my everything.”
Friends and family gathered at the family’s Westminster Road home in Salt River on Monday November 18 to say their final goodbyes as Mujaheed was laid to rest at the Mowbray Muslim Cemetery.
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