A landlord has been charged with murder and hate crimes after allegedly stabbing a Palestinian American six-year-old boy to death and seriously wounding his mother.
Joseph Czuba, 71, allegedly attacked his tenants in their home in Plainfield Township, about 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Chicago, because of the conflict between Hamas and Israel. He has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of hate crime and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
Videos by VICE
“Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis,” the Will County sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Police said that the boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, was stabbed 26 times with a military-style knife, and later died in hospital. His mother, named as Hanaan Shahin, was also stabbed more than a dozen times, seriously injuring her, but she is expected to survive.
President Joe Biden said he was “sickened” by Saturday’s attack on a family who had come to America “seeking what we all seek – a refuge to live, learn, and pray in peace.”
“This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are,” he said.
The Justice Department said it had opened a federal hate crimes investigation into the events leading to Wadea’s death and the serious injuries suffered by his mother.
“On behalf of the entire Justice Department, I want to express my deepest condolences to his family and his community as they grieve his loss,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“The Department is limited in what more it can say because this is an ongoing criminal investigation. This incident cannot help but further raise the fears of Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian communities in our country with regard to hate-fueled violence. The Department of Justice is focused on protecting the safety and the civil rights of every person in this country. We will use every legal authority at our disposal to bring to justice those who perpetrate illegal acts of hate. No one in the United States of America should have to live in fear of violence because of how they worship or where they or their family come from.”
Muslim civil rights group the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) shared text messages sent by the mother to the boy’s father. The messages said that when she had opened the door to her home, Czuba had tried to choke her, then stabbed her, yelling: “You Muslims must die!”
She then ran to the bathroom to call police. When she came out, she found her son stabbed. “It all happened in seconds,” she wrote in the message shared by CAIR.
The organisation said in a social media post that it was “shocked and disturbed” by the deadly attack. “The Islamophobic rhetoric and anti-Palestinian racism being spread by politicians, media outlets, and social media platforms must stop.”
At a press conference on Sunday, CAIR’s executive director Ahmed Rehab said that Czuba had previously had good relations with the victims – even building a treehouse for Wadea. But the alleged attacker had apparently become radicalised by recent events in the Middle East.
“The family had no reason to suspect what was to occur,” Rehab said.
