UPDATE - UK Black Lives Matter Activist in Critical Condition After Shooting

LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th May, 2021) A leading Black Lives Matter activist in the United Kingdom was battling for her life in hospital on Monday after she was shot in the head in an incident her political party said was a targeted attack, in a claim that has so far been denied by the London Metropolitan Police.

According to the Taking the Initiative Party (TTIP), Sasha Johnson, 27, was "brutally attacked" in the early hours of Sunday after receiving numerous death threats as a result of her antiracism activism.

Johnson was a prominent figure in last year's protests in London and other UK cities as part of the global Black Lives Matter movement inspired by the murder of African-American George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police on May 25, 2020.

She is also one of the founders of the Taking the Initiative Party, which contested in the local elections held recently across the UK.

In a statement issued on Sunday evening, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that a shooting had occurred near a house where a party was taking place in south London, and that officers attending the emergency call together with London Ambulance Service paramedics had found a woman with life-threatening head injuries.

The police stressed, however, that while the investigation is still ongoing, "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.

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In a statement sent to Sputnik later on Monday, the TTIP questioned the police statement on this regard, claiming that the officers had reached to the conclusion without having been able to speak with the victim about the death threats.

"Do the police know who the target of the attack was, in order to conclude that Sasha wasn't? How does one manage to shoot someone in the head accidentally?" the party asked.

The TTIP also said that the incident had been portrayed as a "black on black crime" and a "gang crime," after a woman who claimed to be a close friend of the victim told broadcasters on Monday that Sasha Johnson was not the intended target and that the shooting was gang-related.

The party said the woman's statement was "factually incorrect," adding that she was not a friend of Sasha Johnson's and had no authority to talk about the incident.

It claimed that as a result of the negative press that "has infested from this act of hate," the party have been receiving emails and social media messages celebrating the activist's attack, wishing she dies, calling her a racist or wishing the shooter better luck next time.

According to the statement, Sasha Johnson is still in critical condition after having undergone a surgical operation at a south London hospital.