A Northwest Side man who served 7 years for accidentally shooting his sister to death while he was on court supervision for a gun offense in 2012 has managed to collect not one, not two, but three separate active felony gun charges since March 2019. Despite his background, Cook County judges twice released him on affordable bonds for the new gun cases until he picked up his third case this month.
Ibrahim Aysheh was 22-years-old when he told police that he accidentally shot his 20-year-old sister, Nawal, in the head while showing her a gun in October 2012. She died a short time later. He was on court supervision for a gun charge at the time.
Aysheh told investigators he “found the gun hidden on the street,” according to a contemporaneous report in the Chicago Tribune.
He eventually received seven years for involuntary manslaughter of a family member and a concurrent one-year sentence for unlawful use of a weapon. He was paroled in 2015 after serving half of his sentence, records show.
Now, Aysheh is facing a long list of felonies from three separate arrests over the past 19 months. All of the cases are still pending.
On March 23, 2019, prosecutors charged Aysheh with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and possession of 100 to 500 grams of cannabis. He walked out of jail by posting a $2,000 bond.
Less than a year later, on February 4, Aysheh was still on bail for the March case when police allegedly found him in possession of another firearm. Prosecutors charged him with a fresh count of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. Once again, he was released by posting a $2,000 bond, according to court records.
Eight months later, on October 1, police saw a handgun in Aysheh’s waistband as he adjusted his shirt and pants on the 2300 block of North Cicero, prosecutors said. He walked to a nearby car and got into the driver’s seat. Cops pulled him over a few minutes later.
As officers approached his car, they saw that he had pulled the entire radio out of the dashboard, and he was stuffing a gun into the opening, according to prosecutors. There were allegedly 12 packs of cannabis weighing 100 grams on the front passenger seat.
After detaining Aysheh, cops searched the space behind the radio console and found baggies of cocaine and two guns — both were loaded, and one had a laser sight, prosecutors said.
The state charged him with armed violence, possession of cocaine, and possession of cannabis. Judge Arthur Willis ordered him held without bail for violating bail terms in the two pending gun cases. Willis set bail in the new matter at $100,000. Should Aysheh become eligible for release, he would need to post $10,000 to get out on the latest charge.
Aysheh has had some good fortune with the justice system, however. Back in March 2011, he was charged with multiple gun charges, including possession of a weapon with a defaced serial number. He was found not guilty in a bench trial six months later.
