On the night of May 18, Saadet Dervis, 30, along with her two children and her father, attempted to cross the border from northern Syria's Rojava region, which is controlled by the Kurds, into Turkey. Her husband had gone to Turkey a few months prior. Dervis, also known as Saada Darwich, was fleeing an area under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).
As they approached the Turkish border near the Derik district that night, they were detected by Turkish soldiers. Dervis and her group waved and shouted that they wanted to cross the border. Their plea was met with fire from a Scorpion armored vehicle, and Dervis was hit in the stomach. She died in front of her young children and father, Mithat Dervis.