According to the Will County Sheriff’s Office and the family’s relatives, a Plainfield man stabbed a 6-year-old kid to death and critically injured his 32-year-old mother after targeting them because they were Muslim and the man was furious about the continuing conflict between Hamas and Israel. According to a news statement from the sheriff’s office, Joseph Czuba, 71, of Plainfield, was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of hate crimes, and aggravated violence with a deadly weapon.
At a press conference held Sunday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Chicago office, relatives named the victims as Hanaan Shahin and her son Wadea Al-Fayoume. According to relatives, the mother and kid had been living on the bottom level of the property Czuba owned for the past two years without issue. The stabbing happened soon before noon Saturday at a home in Unincorporated Plainfield Township’s 16200 block of South Lincoln Highway. According to authorities, a woman called 911 and said she was in the bathroom protecting herself from her landlord, who was attacking her with a knife.
According to police, when they arrived on the scene, they saw Czuba sitting outside on the ground near the driveway
According to police, when they arrived on the scene, they saw Czuba sitting outside on the ground near the driveway with a laceration on his forehead. Deputies then discovered the victims in a bedroom within the house. They were each stabbed many times in the chest, torso, and upper body. Police initially reported the youngster was eight years old, but he was later determined to be six years old. The youngster was taken to a local hospital in severe condition and eventually confirmed dead. A forensic pathologist confirmed the youngster had been stabbed 26 times after an autopsy on Sunday, according to authorities. According to Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago, Hanaan Shahin texted her ex-husband, Oday Al-Fayoume, about the attack from her hospital bed.
The landlord knocked on her door on Saturday, like he had done many times previously, so she had no reason to be suspicious, according to Rehab. Czuba allegedly strangled and stabbed Shahin when she responded. According to Shahin, the landlord said “You Muslims must die” as he struck her. She was able to flee to the bathroom and call for assistance. When she returned home, she realized her kid had been stabbed thousands of times.
The man was taken to the Will County Sheriff’s Office Public Safety Complex for questioning
Will County Coroner Laurie H. Summers stated in a statement Sunday that the boy died at Ascension St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet at 12:19 p.m. The coroner’s office said in a statement that an autopsy was performed on Sunday. The 32-year-old lady was brought in serious condition with over a dozen stab wounds to a nearby hospital on Saturday and is likely to survive, according to the sheriff’s office. Czuba was taken to the Will County Sheriff’s Office Public Safety Complex for questioning after being treated and discharged from the hospital. The sheriff’s office stated that, despite his refusal to make any admissions about the attack, detectives were able to acquire enough information.
Czuba has been transported to the Will County Adult Detention Facility and is awaiting his initial court appearance, the sheriff’s office said. According to Rehab, when Al-Fayoume talked about his son he said “he was a 6-year-old — he loved everything. He loved everybody. He loved his toys. He loved basketball and soccer. He loved to colour. He loved to swing around. He loved his parents. He loved his family and his friends. He loved life.”
”He paid the price for the atmosphere of hate, otherization and dehumanization that, frankly, I think we’re seeing here in the United States as a result of irresponsible leadership and lopsided, one-side statements and coverage we’re seeing in the media, elected officials, all across,” Rehab said. The family left the city of Beitunia in Palestine’s West Bank a decade ago to escape violence, but after the Saturday attack, Al-Fayoume told Rehab that violence had “chased them all the way to the United States.”
”I ask you: what level of blind hatred can cause such an act? And for us to reflect under which conditions such an act can occur,” Rehab said. “We need to take collective responsibility for how we, as a civilized democratic nation, can engage in a complex conversation about a complex issue and not erase Palestinian lives, not erase Palestinian victimhood, not erase the suffering of the Palestinian people.”
