UIC classmate remembers 20-year-old man killed in Kennedy crash
CHICAGO — Mahir Warraich grew to know Mohmedtalha Tailor over the last two years at the University of Illinois-Chicago, where the two shared classes and the same major.
“I was someone who saw Talha almost every single day for the past two years,” Warraich said. “Every day, I would come sit next to him. We would play games on our phones, we would go to class together. This bond you have when you’re classmates with someone.”
Warraich and Tailor, who went by “Talha” according to friends and family, were both finance majors at UIC. Wednesday around 11 a.m., Tailor, his sister and her friend were driving home from campus, when they got into a crash with another vehicle on the outbound Kennedy Expressway, near Adams Street.
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“I was boarding the train to go home and one of our classmates from a mutual class she approached me and was crying,” Warraich said. “She found out and told me about it. I was very shocked. I headed over to the hospital where Ameenah was — the other girl in the car — and his sister, Fatima.”
According to Illinois State Police, the driver of the other car, Fatima Tailor and her friend were all transported to the hospital in critical condition.
“Fatima is an HR major — brilliant woman — a friend of mine, of ours,” Warraich said. “She’s one of those people at UIC, she’s one of ours. This is very tragic, what happened.”
Warraich said Fatima was discharged from the hospital and is recovering at home.
The accident itself is still under investigation, as friends and family mourn the loss of a young man who left a mark on everyone he met.
“Not a single day has gone by where I did not see that giant smile on his face,” Warraich said. “He was the funny one. The really laid back friend who was cracking jokes, taking care of everybody. [He] had the biggest heart.”
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