CHARGED! Yet another HASSAN!

Resident charged in fatal apartment building fire

A resident of a Rogers Park apartment building where a man died in a suspicious fire last week had been charged with murder and arson in connection with the blaze, police said.

Mahad Ali Hassan, 26, of 6720 N. Sheridan Road, was charged late Saturday night with first-degree murder, aggravated arson and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli.

Hassan was arrested Friday at a North Side location other than the apartment building, following Belmont Area and Bomb and Arson detectives' interviews with witnesses and other leads, Mirabelli 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, where the fire started in a hallway.

The fire was determined to be an arson, and the person 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 person who died has not yet been identified, pending notification of family.

The Red Cross also helped set up a shelter for many of the 25 people diplaced 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.

Hassan was expected to appear in Cook County Central Bond Court today, Mirabelli said.

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Ah...I'm going to assume something here, which I probably should not, as I have been called a racist time and again up here in Rogers Park.

This guy is a Moslem, right? A member of the great 'religion of peace', right? He didn't stick around to die himself, did he? Maybe he just doesn't have 'the stuff' to take care of 72 virgins, huh?

I am ecstatic that he is caught, for whomever the man is who died as a result of this arson, perhaps that man's family or friends will find some resolution.