"He was killed in the neighborhood": Ahmed Sylla recounts the murder of his best friend

It was during an interview visible on the YouTube channel Amuse Bouche that Ahmed Sylla told with great emotion a painful memory. A testimony published on May 28 and viewed by more than 500,000 people: "In 2008, I lost one of my best friends. His name was Toko. He was 21."

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It was September 4, 2008. "He was killed in the neighborhood, so a very violent death. We've never experienced that. In fact, there are raids, there are drugs, unemployment etc... But we've never experienced something so strong. And I will always remember that," says the comedian, tears in his eyes. When he is called to tell him about this tragedy, he goes immediately to the scene. "I come and I see my friend on the ground. He is riddled with bullets. He had been killed by people we had grown up with," he continues. Toko was the first to believe in him. Long before the artist's debut, he had predicted to her: "You're going to break through, you're going to be somebody."

Ahmed Sylla came close to death in his turn

"I almost joined him a few years later," says the one who recently strongly criticized the statements of Blanche Gardin on "LOL, who laughs comes out!". Since the death of his friend Toko "violence has taken a step in the neighborhood". He is in the car with friends, he notices that he is being followed. The comedian remembers being "very scared" that day. He parks on a street and sees a black car stop behind his vehicle. An individual stands at the height of his window.

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"And here I have a reflex, I think that saved our lives, because they took us for another guy. I open my door and I was known in all neighborhoods to make people laugh. And I have a reflex, I open my door and the passenger recognizes me. He says, 'It's okay, it's not them,'" he said. Alas, one of the friends present in Ahmed Sylla's car who "is not used to letting himself be done" provokes the threatening interlocutors who pull out a weapon, a shotgun.

A shot goes off, "the guy shoots a shotgun at our car. I'm paralyzed, I can no longer drive. Fortunately, they didn't say, "We're going to finish the job". They're gone." "My buddy has his hand exploded" the bullet hit "in the side of gasoline, full of lead. It blows his hand, it explodes the window. I have my buddy's blood on my t-shirt." They eventually arrive at the hospital, "I saw myself dying at that time," concludes Ahmed Sylla.