Illinois’ gun control laws are a deliberately nightmarish maze of red tape designed to discourage law-abiding citizens from exercising their rights. But Qwentin Howard? He played by every single absurd rule. FOID card? Check. Concealed carry license? Check. This guy jumped through hoops that would make a circus lion tap out.
Then came the Chicago PD’s finest three-ring disaster.
During a routine traffic stop, Officers Julian Irving and Sarah Abuosba decided to ignore typical procedures for CCW holders on minor traffic stops. They disarm Howard anyway. At least they didn’t negligently shoot him with his own gun while disarming him.
Anyway, they plopped his legally carried firearm on the trunk like it was a forgotten grocery bag. And in the process of their expert handling—or whatever Keystone Cops routine they were performing—two rounds of ammunition magically vanished. Gone. Disappeared into the ether. Maybe they pocketed them as souvenirs, maybe they dropped them down a storm drain while high-fiving over their brilliance, or maybe they offered them up to some bizarre parking-lot deity. Who knows? The point is: these two managed to lose ammunition from a citizen’s gun while it was in their custody. Poof. Professionalism at its finest.
Pro-tip: If they’d not messed with the gun and left it on Mr. Howard, this wouldn’t have happened. Or if they hadn’t fingered his pistol, assuming it might be stolen. Because, you know, law-abiding folks run around with stolen guns regularly.
Howard, being a responsible adult (unlike certain badge-wearers), notices the missing rounds when he gets his gun back. So what does he do? He doesn’t rant on social media or start trouble—he drives straight to the nearby Wentworth District station to file an official police report. Smart move: document the screw-up so those stray bullets with his fingerprints don’t mysteriously appear at a crime scene later. No threats, no attitude, just paperwork. Admirable.
A licensed gun owner says Chicago cops secured his weapon during a traffic stop, but two bullets were missing when he got it back.
They arrested him when he tried to file a report about the missing ammo.
Now the city and the cops are getting sued.https://t.co/cVpC7PRgnv
— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) March 1, 2026
That’s when the real clown show kicked off.
At the station, Howard encounters the same bumbling duo—Irving and Abuosba—plus their supervisor, Officer John Sanders, who apparently reigns supreme as the undisputed champion of paper-thin egos and power-tripping pettiness.
Howard calmly explains the situation and mentions he’ll be recording the interaction for his own protection (you know, after the department already lost part of his property). Reasonable, right?
Sanders, the fragile kingpin, loses it. He demands a physical FOID card—even though Howard had already shown an electronic version during the original stop. When Howard pushes back on the nonsense, Sanders doesn’t de-escalate; he escalates like it’s his personal mission. He orders Irving to cuff Howard. Why? Because he “only” could produce a digital copy of his FOID card instead of the physical card.
So Howard gets a free ride to jail and all that nightmare. For daring to report missing property and wanting basic accountability.
Abuosba reportedly tells the handcuffed Howard he’s being hauled in because he “wanted to escalate the issue and make it bigger than it had to be.” Projection much? The guy just wanted his two missing bullets documented, but apparently asking CPD to own their incompetence is the real crime in Chicago.
Howard is now suing the city and these three officers in federal court for what looks like a textbook retaliatory arrest. And if the facts hold up? He’s probably walking away with a nice settlement check courtesy of taxpayers. As for Irving, Abuosba, and especially the ego-bruised Sanders? Discipline is on the table—up to and including termination.
They earned it. Incompetence on the street is bad enough. But turning a simple report of their own blunder into an arrest because someone’s tone hurt their feelings? That’s next-level bad policing. Chicago deserves better than officers who lose ammo, then lose their minds when called on it.