A 6-year-old boy was killed and his mother critically injured when they were stabbed by a man who targeted them because they were Muslim in the wake of the war between Israel and Hamas, police and relatives of the victims said.
The woman, 32, called 911 Saturday morning and told dispatchers that her landlord in southwest suburban Plainfield Township was attacking her with a knife, the Will County Sheriff’s Department said.
Police arrived at the home in 16000 block of South Lincoln Highway about 11:38 a.m. and found the woman and the boy each with multiple stab wounds, an autopsy found. The boy had been stabbed 26 times.
They were transported to a nearby hospital, where the boy was pronounced dead. The woman was in serious condition, according to Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which held a press conference with relatives of the victims Sunday afternoon.
Police found the suspect, 71-year-old Joseph Czuba, outside the residence and took him into custody. Czuba was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of a hate crime and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
“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 sheriff’s department said.
CAIR identified the boy as Wadea Al-Fayoume, and his mother as Hanan Shaheen. The organization’s news conference included the boy’s father, uncle and other family members at the Muslim Community Center in Chicago.
The mother and child were both Palestinian American, Rehab said. The mother has been in the U.S. for 12 years, and the boy was born in the U.S. He celebrated his 6th birthday Oct. 6.
Rehab said the boy loved basketball, soccer and “anything with a ball.” He liked playing on the swings and coloring.
“He loved his family and friends, he loved life,” Rehab said.
The boy’s father, Oday Al Fayoume, was “in shock” at the news conference, Rehab said, but he spoke briefly in Arabic with Rehab translating.
“Gratitude to God in any situation,” he said.
When asked how people can best honor his son, he said he wanted to see “accountability for his life taken too soon. He said “the memory of his son will live with them but for them to feel that his life was meaningful … justice has to be achieved.”
Rehab said he viewed text messages from the boy’s mother to the boy’s father saying that Czuba knocked on their door Saturday morning and attacked her and made anti-Muslim statements. The texts said she went into the bathroom, dialed 911, and when she came out, she found her son with multiple stab wounds, Rehab said.
“It all happened in seconds,” she texted.
Police did not immediately confirm the details from the text messages.
Rehab said Czuba had built a treehouse for the child, and the family had no previous problems with him.
“I ask you, what level of hate, blind hatred, could cause such an act?” Rehab asked.
‘They were good people’
Mariola Jagodzinski, a neighbor, said Shahin and her son rented a room in the house owned by Czuba and his wife, and had lived there for at least a couple of years.
Jagodzinski said she had donated some of her children’s old toys to the young boy and his mom around the time they first moved in. “They were good people,” Jagodzinski said.
Jagodzinski said she didn’t hear any noise at the time of the attack. But she saw some of the aftermath of the stabbing from behind her fence.
“I saw how they carried the boy on a stretcher, full of blood,” Jagodzinski said. “The body was lifeless. It was hard to see that. They were running, rushing to try to save him.”
Jagodzinski described Czuba as an “extremely” religious person, and added that she hadn’t had any issues with him or his wife. She said Czuba would sometimes help her fix things around the house. She said she hadn’t seen any problems between Czuba and his tenants but was unaware of anything that happened inside.
Neighbors said Czuba liked to collect things he found in the street and display them in front of his home. Old political campaign signs, tattered U.S. flags, discolored children’s playground sets, broken exercise equipment and other items were strewn around the yard.
Dozens of wooden crosses were planted in a row across the front lawn. A large sign reading “School of the Rock” was displayed in front of the home.
