Three weeks after a former Nigerian beauty queen and doctorate student from Philadelphia, United States was shot dead, police have not found a motive and have made no arrests.
Najeebat Sule was shot multiple times by a gunman while sitting in her Toyota car and texting with a friend in front of her family’s home on March 12.
Her parents are in hiding out of fear for their lives.
Known to her loved ones as Najee, she had only recently earned a Master’s degree in public health.
In 2019, she was crowned a second runner-up at the Miss Nigeria International pageant. The 24-year-old was pursuing a doctorate at the time of her violent death.
Sule’s close friend Habibat Magaji was among the last people to have seen Sule alive before she was gunned down, reports Daily Mail.
The two women had spent the night before at Magaji’s home, eating snacks and watching Netflix together.
“I can’t think of anything that would make anyone want to kill her,” Magaji told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Sule’s father Adewale Sule heard the gunfire and emerged from the house just in time to see the suspect fire the last of the shots at his daughter.
“I saw the guy shooting my daughter. He shot the last round and I pursued him, he ran back to his car,” he said.
Speaking on Wednesday on the high number of gun-related deaths in Philadelphia in recent times, police commissioner Danielle Outlaw said: “This is absolutely unacceptable,” stressing that “these are human beings that we’re talking about.”
Sule was pronounced dead at Jefferson Torresdale Hospital about 30 minutes after she was shot.
She is survived by her parents and two sisters.
Sule and her family moved to the US from Nigeria in the early 2000s.
