When Mohamed Fofanah and Mya Abialmouna were shot to death in 2023, Fofanah’s name rose to the top. The 20-year-old had lost a brother to homicide just six months prior, and Edmonton’s Sierra Leonean community spoke out on behalf of the grieving family. Mya’s name faded into the background.
Three years later, with the case still unsolved, her mom wants to change that.
“It’s difficult, because what do you do? How do you help?” Melissa Robertson said in an interview. “What do you do to try to help your child who’s gone and has seemingly almost been forgotten?
“She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and sadly she lost her life because of that.”
Mya, who also used the last name Robertson, was 21 and “embarking into adulthood” at the time of the shooting, her mother said. One of four sisters, she grew up in south Edmonton, attended J. Percy Page High School and competed in ballet, jazz and hip hop dancing. An animal lover, she was working at a pet store and taking upgrading courses in hopes of going to school for social work.
“When she hit 21 she was like, ‘OK, I’m ready to start looking at what life can look like for me,’” Robertson said. “She really wanted to do more traveling, just start to spread her wings a little bit.”
Mya and Fofanah dated as teenagers but by March 2023 were “growing up and growing apart,” Robertson said. The two became close again after Fofanah’s brother Alhaji was found dead in Mountain View County in September 2022. Fofanah was struggling and Mya didn’t want to abandon him, her mother said.
“I said, ‘you need to be very, very careful, Mya. I understand you’re worried about him … but I just need you to be very, very careful, because we don’t know what’s transpired.’”
The day before the shooting, Mya and Fofanah spent all day cooped up at home. Fofanah, who Robertson had known since he was 16, never took off his jacket. Both he and her daughter seemed “off.”
On March 7, 2023, Mya asked Fofanah to drive her to an appointment in her car. At some point, they were involved in a fender bender and stopped near 132A Avenue and 66 Street to wait for police to respond. At around 7:35 p.m., someone opened fire on the vehicle. Edmonton police homicide Det. Jared Buhler later described them as “sitting duck(s).”
Mya Abialmouna, 21, was killed in a shooting alongside 20-year-old Mohamed Fofanah in 2023. The homicides remain unsolved.
‘Everybody thinks they know the scenario’
Robertson went silent in the wake of her daughter’s killing. She hasn’t posted photos of her or shared on social media, because of the nastiness that comes out in the comments.
“‘How does a parent not know what their kids are up to?’” she said, giving a common example. “‘Oh my God, you’re gonna let your daughter date this person?’
“Everybody thinks they know this scenario, but you don’t.”
Edmonton police homicide detectives continue to investigate the case but need someone to come forward with information, Robertson said.
Police previously said the homicides of Fofanah and Mya are connected to other violence, including the shooting of 20-year-old Usama Ibrahinadan just a week later. At a 2023 press conference, Buhler said police believe the shooters mistook Ibrahinadan for a friend of Fofanah’s who lived in the same building. The detective said all three shootings were “part of an ongoing conflict involving retaliatory violence between Edmonton-based groups.”
Robertson said her daughter was never involved in that lifestyle.
“I had a very open relationship with Mya, very strong communication, so she shared a lot with me,” she said. “She may have known something, I don’t know, but at that age, do you (really) know how grave and severe something could be?”
Since her daughter’s death, Robertson has been attending meetings of the Victims of Homicide Support Society. It’s helpful to be in a room with people that understand a unique kind of loss, but the meetings can be disheartening, she said.
“When I look at how many people in the room are saying ‘our cases aren’t solved, our cases aren’t solved, our cases are cold,’ it really deteriorates your hope.”
Robertson hopes anyone with information about the homicides comes forward — which she knows is a scary prospect given the people involved.
“No matter how small it may seem, this could help bring justice not just for Mya but for everybody victimized here,” she said. “Our family continues to live with this devastating loss, and their courage could make the difference.”
Related
Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun