A man traveled from his home in Georgia and fatally shot his ex-wife in her condominium in Streeterville Monday afternoon before turning the gun on himself as officers tried to get inside, according to police reports.
Officers arrived at the building in the 200 block of East Ohio Street around 4:30 p.m. after police in Alpharetta, Ga., requested a well-being check on Raheel Ahmed, 36, the reports state. His family had reported him missing from the Atlanta suburb, where he lived.
An officer from Alpharetta told Chicago police that Ahmed and his wife, 29-year-old Sania Khan, were “going through a divorce,” according to the reports. He was depressed and traveled here “to salvage the marriage.”
Two of Khan’s friends, however, told the Sun-Times that their divorce was finalized in May.
As officers knocked on the door, they heard a single gunshot and “a verbal groan,” the reports state.
When they entered, the officers found Khan unresponsive near the door with a gunshot wound to the back of the head and blood on her face that had already dried, a source said. Ahmed was found in a bedroom and was also shot in the head, according to the reports.
He was holding a 9mm Glock handgun, and a suicide note was found nearby, the reports state.
Khan was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Ahmed was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he also died.
Her death was ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiner’s office. His death was listed as a suicide.
Khan was a photographer who specialized in shots of weddings and happy couples. She wrote on her professional website that her work was dedicated to capturing “life’s most precious moments.”
“I help people fall in love with themselves and each other in front of the camera!” she wrote in her Instagram biography.
Khan said on her website that she moved to Chicago in June of last year after growing up in Chattanooga, Tenn.
“I used to love travel so much that I was a flight attendant,” she wrote. “My favorite layover was always Chicago and who would have known 2 years later I would have moved there?”
Grant, a friend of Khan’s from high school who didn’t want his last name published, told the Sun-Times she was planning to move back home this week “to start planning her next move in her photography career.” He said her death “still doesn’t seem real.”
“You were stepping into the next chapter of your life when you left us,” he wrote on Facebook, “and I hope that wherever you are this next chapter brings you the happiness and success you were always wanting.”
Grant, who works as a camera operator and videographer, said they were both “creative spirits” who bonded over their love of photography at the Chattanooga School for the Arts & Sciences.
During college, Khan double-majored in psychology and women’s studies as she launched her photography career on the side, he said. After working as a social worker, she became a flight attendant “to support herself becoming a traveling photographer” and eventually pursued her passion full time.
“She could make a friend out of anyone and would always be there for them during their moments,” Grant said. “You would be hard pressed to find anyone who would say something bad about Sania because just knowing Sania added so much light to your life.”
She and Ahmed broke up last winter and divorced months later, he said. He declined to comment further on their relationship.
Domestic violence continued to surge in Chicago and across Illinois last year as pandemic-induced isolation and economic uncertainty made it harder for victims to get help, according to a report released earlier this month.
A statewide domestic violence hotline received nearly 30,000 calls in 2021, up 5%, and the number of murders and shootings involving domestic relations in Chicago increased nearly two-thirds from 2020, according to the report by The Network, a Chicago-based advocacy organization.
Those seeking help should call 911 or the statewide helpline at (877) 863-6338.
