The man who died was identified as Noor Surani, 49, according to his family. A relative of Surani’s, who asked not to be identified, said he was identified through dental records. Other relatives said Surani, a cab driver who lived in Chicago for less than a year, left behind three children in Atlanta. The Cook County medical examiner’s office is not releasing the name of the man, according to a spokesman.
“We are still in shock, I’m really hurting,” said a relative.”Oh no, [all this over] a fight between a man and two women.”
Hassan was arrested Friday on the North Side, following Belmont Area and Bomb and Arson detectives’ interviews with witnesses and other leads, police said. He was in possession of a loaded handgun at the time of his arrest.
The fire, which began just before 12:15 p.m. Thursday, killed one man and injured five other people, including two firefighters and a man who jumped from his apartment on the fifth floor of the building.
The fire was determined to be an arson, and Surani, who died of inhalation of smoke and soot, was determined to have died in a homicide, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
The Red Cross also helped set up a shelter for many of the 25 people displaced by the fire, which spread from the fifth floor to the fourth and caused heavy smoke damage, although the fire itself spread only into the apartment from which the man jumped, officials said.
For an earlier story about the fire, go HERE.
– Liam Ford, Kristen Mack and Carlos Sadovi
Read the original article from Tribune News Services.