Sawsan Toma, a 42-year-old female, was a business partner and a close friend to Yusuf Ahmed-Ibrahim. He had been a guest in her home for family meals, and her children looked up to him. Family members said he was someone she supposedly loved, which made the events of a late autumn Sunday in Tucson, Arizona, all the more perplexing and tragic.
On the morning of November 13, 2022, police were called to the Wadee Smoke Shop in the 3900 block of South 12th Avenue.
Inside, officers discovered the bodies of two women: Sawsan Toma and a 31-year-old customer named Yvette Gutierrez. Both had suffered fatal gunshot wounds and were pronounced dead at the scene. According to family, the two women had been locked inside the shop before they were killed.
Detectives with the Tucson Police Department quickly identified 43-year-old Yusuf Ahmed-Ibrahim, the owner of the building where the smoke shop was located, as the primary suspect. An arrest warrant was issued, and two days later, on November 15, officers located and apprehended Ahmed-Ibrahim near South Second Avenue and East 18th Street. He was taken into custody without incident.
Ahmed-Ibrahim was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and booked into the Pima County jail, where he was held on a $2 million bond. The case proceeded through the legal system, and in August 2025, a jury found Yusuf Ahmed-Ibrahim guilty on both counts of first-degree murder for the killings of Sawsan Toma and Yvette Gutierrez.
At his sentencing hearing in October 2025, Ahmed-Ibrahim maintained his innocence through his attorney and an Arabic translator, expressing condolences but stating he did not commit the crime. One of Toma’s sons delivered a victim impact statement, telling the court that the image of his mother lying dead and cold on the floor would remain with him. He said that while nothing could bring her back, holding her killer accountable was the only peace for his family. The judge sentenced Yusuf Ahmed-Ibrahim to life in prison. As of October 2025, he is serving his sentence.
