LONDON — A prominent Black Lives Matter activist is being treated in hospital after she was “brutally attacked” in London in the early hours of Sunday morning, according to fellow activists.
Sasha Johnson, the 27-year-old who was one of the organizers of the first-ever Million People March in London last August to protest against systemic racism in the U.K., was shot in the head, according to BBC reports.
The Taking the Initiative Party, of which she is a leading member, told the broadcaster Johnson was being treated in intensive care after being taken to a south London hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The Metropolitan Police, which issued a statement about the shooting in Peckham, south London, did not confirm Johnson’s identity, but said officers believe the “shooting occurred in the vicinity of a house where a party was taking place, and that a number of people may have been in the area.”
“There is nothing to suggest that the woman who was shot was the subject of a targeted attack or that she had received any credible threats against her prior to this incident,” the statement added.
Imarn Ayton, a friend and fellow activist of Johnson’s, told the BBC she did not believe Johnson was the “intended victim.”
“As far as I am aware … this incident is more related to rival gangs as opposed to her activism,” Ayton said.
