In July, a 29-year-old woman’s estranged husband traveled from Georgia to her apartment building in Chicago to kill her and himself in a murder-suicide after she posted about their failed marriage on social media. (Read More Here).
Now, Shazia Khan, mother of deceased TikTok star Sania Khan, is accusing her daughter’s building of facilitating the murder-suicide in a wrongful death lawsuit filed earlier this week.
“Sania Khan’s story is a tragic one that should have been prevented. The defendants had known for more than [seven] months that Sania’s estranged husband posed a significant threat to her life,” Chicago attorney Mike Gallagher, who is handling the case, told Fox News Digital in a statement. “And despite this knowledge, the defendants allowed him to walk right past security before escorting him into the secured portion of the building, without even asking to see his identification.”
Gallagher added that had building management personnel followed their own policies, they would have discovered that Sania’s estranged husband, Raheel Ahmad, “was on a ‘no-entry’ list for the building.” They also would have stopped him from entering and walking through the building without showing his ID, he said.
An incident report from the Chicago Police Department (CPD) states that police responded to the 200 block of East Ohio Street in Chicago on July 18 around 4:30 p.m., when they located Ahmad, 36, and Sania, his estranged Pakistani-American wife, both deceased with gunshot wounds to the head.
Just a few minutes after Raheel Ahmad is seen getting off the 28th floor, police said the 36-year-old shot Khan to death before turning the gun on himself.
“Knowing that he killed her after that elevator is the hardest thing,” Shazia Khan said.
Khan believes her daughter would be alive today if building management and security followed apartment building protocols.
“If they had run his name through the system, somehow they would find out he was not allowed in there and my daughter would be alive,” she said.
Sania, a Pakistani-American photographer, had moved to Chicago in 2021 with then-husband Ahmad, but a few months later their relationship unraveled. Khan accused Ahmad of spousal abuse, and spent the last few months of her life sharing her story on social media hoping to give a voice to other Muslim women afraid to speak up. Sania also filed for divorce and took steps to keep Ahmad away from her apartment building.
“She personally told the management employees that under no circumstances should Ahmad be allowed in the building because again she feared for her safety,” said Michael Gallagher, Khan family attorney.
But on July 18, Ahmad was allowed into the building. Video obtained by the law firm Taxman, Murray, Pollock and Bekkerman showed Ahmad entered a secure area with a rental agent without his ID being checked. According to the lawsuit filed against building management and security, Ahmad was carrying with him a garment bag containing Sania’s wedding dress and a backpack with a gun. He eventually left the rental agent, made his way to Sania’s apartment, broke in and killed her.
“Losing a child is the hardest thing I have gone through I have to live is that that the rest of my life because of their negligence,” said Shazia Khan.
Khan said she was hesitant to file a lawsuit, but she felt it was the only way to get justice for her daughter. So far First Service Residential Illinois, the building management company, has not returned ABC7’s request for a response to the legal action.
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