Lawsuit: Estranged husband got into Streeterville building, murdered wife despite management knowing he was dangerous
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Sania Khan was shot and killed by her estranged husband in a murder-suicide in her Streeterville building this past summer.
This was despite building management knowing not to let him in following a prior attack and notification of a threat – as Khan's family alleges in a lawsuit they just filed against the building's management and security.
As CBS 2's Tara Molina reported, Khan's family alleges her estranged husband, Raheel Ahmad, was banned from the Grand Ohio condo complex, 211 E. Ohio St., and was known to be a serious threat. But he was still allowed access in July to tour rental units without ever providing an ID – and it is all on surveillance camera, the family alleged.
"Losing a child is the hardest thing I have gone through," said Sania Khan's mother, Shazia Khan. "I have to live with that for the rest of my life - because of their negligence."
Surveillance camera video taken throughout the building the day Sania Khan was killed by her estranged husband shows him walking into the lobby with two large packages in his hands. Ahmad never checks in with the front desk.
Ahmad is then seen him meet up with a rental agent, and they get into the elevators - but he never once shows the rental agent or those at the front desk his ID.
No one checks his bags. And after touring a unit, the lawsuit says the rental agent allowed him to stay in the building, unaccompanied, when he asked.
"I really feel that if they had followed the protocols that day, my daughter would've been alive," said Shazia Khan.
It didn't all start on the day that was caught on camera.
In December 2021, Ahmad tried to take his own life in the building – and tried to push Sania out of the window with him. Police responded, and Ahmad was taken to a mental health facility.
Sania Khan changed the locks and removed his name from the lease. She filed for divorce in February.
In the spring of this year, Sadia notified all parties involved in managing and securing the building - already aware of the December incident of the threat Ahmad posed – not to allow him in the building.
But months later, in July 2022, the murder-suicide happened in that very building.
"If either management or security would've followed their policies, they would've checked his ID," said Kahn family attorney Michael L. Gallagher. "They would've known he was on a no-entry list for the building, and he would have never gotten beyond the secured door."
Surveillance video showed Ahmad entering the building with two packages. Family attorneys say a garment bag had Sania's wedding dress inside - and a backpack had the gun with which he shot her and himself.
"I really feel that someone need to be accountable for the negligence they have done," said Shazia Khan.
Sania was a professional photographer who moved to Chicago in June of last year. In the months before her murder, she had been in front of the lens on TikTok, where she has openly documented her divorce from a man she describes as toxic.
Khan also posted about the cultural stigma of divorce in the South Asian community. In one video she wrote: "Going through a divorce as a South Asian woman feels like you failed at life sometimes."
In another post, she said: "It's painful to walk away from someone you once loved. But it's even more painful to love someone who is careless with your heart."
Molina reached the Grand Ohio condo building and its management company for a response to all of this.
We haven't heard back from them, but Titan Security Group – named in the lawsuit – said it does not provide security for the building:
"Titan has no record of providing security staffing services at 211 E Ohio Street at any time in the history of our organization. We have no further comment on this pending litigation at this time."
