Who is Brandon Sanders? Teen's body found in freezer of Chicago man accused of stabbing contractor to death
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Investigators have reportedly found the body of a teenager in a freezer at the home of a man who is accused of fatally stabbing an HVAC repairman on the roof of a bakery building in Chicago. Rasim Katanic, 69, was allegedly killed by Brandon Sanders on the roof of an Indian sweets shop in Chicago, Illinois. According to reports, Sanders is suspected of fatally stabbing Katanic in broad daylight on May 12.
Police sources told WLS that when looking into the stabbing incident, they discovered a teenager's body in Sanders' home's freezer. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the victim was 18-year-old Iman Al-Sarraj. According to WLS, a separate investigation is still being conducted on whether the same man is responsible for both deaths.
Who is Brandon Sanders?
Brandon Sanders is the 33-year-old suspected killer who allegedly stabbed HVAC technician Rasim Katanic to death on the roof of the Tahoora Sweets & Bakery building in Chicago. Moreover, the body of teen Al-Sarraj has also been discovered in Sanders' apartment. Sanders has so far been accused of fatally stabbing Katanic after a coincidental encounter on the top of Tahoora Sweets in West Ridge in May. However, he has not been charged with the murder of Al-Sarraj, whose battered body was discovered in a refrigerator at Sanders' West Ridge apartment early this month.
According to the Sun-Times report, authorities in Montana, where Sanders was detained in 2019 and suspected of pressuring his wife into sex work, are looking into incidents involving similar missing persons. According to the report, Sanders was accused of witness tampering, aggravated prostitution promotion, and human trafficking. Due to the Cocid-19 outbreak, his wife, who was in protective custody at the time, left for her native Germany rather than come back to the United States for Sanders' trial.
Sanders faced a penalty of almost 25 years in jail, according to prosecutor Joshua Racki, but if found guilty, he would have most likely received a term of only about 10 years. Sanders already had a track record in Chicago. According to court documents, he admitted to choking his ex-girlfriend from behind while hiding in the back seat of her car in 2016 and sending her threatening texts afterward.
According to an arrest report, Sanders' subsequent encounter with Chicago police occurred early on January 1 of this year when he got kicked out from the Electric Hotel Nightclub at 222 W Ontario St "due to being irate." Sanders allegedly assaulted the manager after threatening to get a gun out of his car as he was being led out of the club. He was accused of felony violence and assault. Later that month, Sanders' initial court appearance resulted in the charges being withdrawn.
'My dad was slaughtered'
On May 12, at approximately 4.40 pm, Katanic was stabbed while he was repairing a walk-in cooler compressor on the roof of a restaurant in West Ridge, Chicago. Sanders, of Evanston, Illinois, was detained for the fatal stabbing on June 29, more than a month after the incident. On Tuesday, July 25, Sanders appeared in court on counts of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and domestic burglary.
The prosecution allegedly said that after stabbing Katanic in the neck and head, Sanders seized his wallet, keys, and screwdriver, per The Tribune. The authorities said that the man forced his way inside a nearby apartment building by unscrewing and removing a skylight.
Katanic's daughter Aida Sutardjo said to ABC 7, "My dad was slaughtered. This is not was not the first time my dad was on that roof. This has been my dad’s long-term client for 10-plus years He probably didn’t think my dad was working. He probably did not see or assume anybody was working on that roof, encountered my dad, and then, I think, we know what happened." Sutardjo claimed that through an uncanny coincidence, she found out that Al-Sarraj's body had been discovered in Sanders' apartment.