Since 22-year-old Khadija Charmant was fatally shot in Brampton, her mother, Catiuska, says she’s been seeing ladybugs appear all around her home.
Catiuska says she would call Khadija her “little ladybug,” a childhood nickname inspired by her daughter’s first Halloween costume. Now, those ladybugs remind her of her daughter’s presence as they crawl across her arm.
“She’s just there to let me know she’s okay and that she’s watching over me,” Catiuska said.
Khadija was killed around 6 a.m. on Oct. 19. Police said she was in a car with five women and a male driver in an industrial parking lot near Rutherford Road S. and Selby Road when another car pulled up and started shooting. Khadija was pronounced dead at the scene, while three other people in her car were injured.
Catiuska said she is still trying to make sense of what happened. When she first heard the news, she said she thought it was some kind of sick joke. She still feels like Khadija could pick up the phone anytime now or walk through the door with her infectious smile.
“If you see me and her, it’s my twin … I feel so empty,” Catiuska said.
Almost a week later, police haven’t provided information about who could have pulled the trigger.
Police continued canvassing an industrial area in Brampton where a fatal shooting happened over the weekned. One woman was killed and three others were injured. Police are still not releasing any details about potential suspects. CBC’s Naama Weingarten has more.
Catiuska said Khadija, who lived in Ottawa, was visiting the GTA to watch her friend perform at a concert. After the show, they went to continue partying at a recording studio in Brampton.
The name and exact location of the studio remains unclear to Catiuska, but she said a family member of one of the other women in the car told her the studio’s owner later called an Uber to pick up her daughter and her friends to take them home. The shooting took place once they entered the car, Catiuska said.
“What kind of sick person are you to shoot in a car with five girls?” she said.
Catiuska said police told her they believe Khadija’s car was mistakenly targeted and her daughter died a hero, saying she jumped on top of her friends as shots were fired. While police continue to search for potential suspects, Catiuska said updates have gone dry.
“They don’t know what to tell me,” she said.
CBC News reached out to Peel Regional Police to confirm these details, but did not hear back before publication.
Catiuska said she last spoke with her daughter on the phone a week before she died. Khadija made sure to check if her mother was okay and whether she had eaten.
“It was like a normal day,” she said. “I didn’t know that would have been the last time I spoke to her.”
Khadija grew up in Ottawa with three younger siblings and hoped to become a social worker, her mother said. While she took a break from her studies after her father died, Khadija started working as an event planner and ran the popular Instagram page Shottawa TV. She lived with her brother after her mother moved back to Montreal.
Catiuska said Khadija always went out of her way to take care of people around her. With her witty humor and nonchalant attitude, she would sometimes get in trouble for calling people “bro.”
“I’m not your bro, I’m your mom,” her mother said she would tell her, to which Khadija would say “you’re my everything.”
What makes Khadija’s death all the more troubling, her mother says, is that her father, Mark Jackson, also died of gun violence. He was shot and killed outside a Montreal barbershop in 2020.
Khadija was his only child. Her mother said the two had a close relationship.
Catiuska said Khadija directly addressed the man who killed her father when he was on trial, confronting him about how sad she was that she wouldn’t be able to speak or see her dad ever again.
Khadija will be buried at a public funeral next Saturday in Montreal, right beside her father’s grave, Catiuska said.