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.
Hanaan Shahin, 32, called 911 Saturday morning and told dispatchers her landlord in southwest suburban Plainfield Township was attacking her with a knife, authorities said.
Police arrived at the home in the 16000 block of South Lincoln Highway about 11:35 a.m. and found Shahin and her son, Wadea Al-Fayoume. Each had been repeatedly stabbed, the boy 26 times.
They were taken 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 news conference with relatives of the Palestinian American victims Sunday afternoon.
A funeral for the boy will be held at 1 p.m. Monday at the Mosque Foundation, 7360 W. 93rd St. in Bridgeview. A burial will follow at Parkholm Cemetery, 2501 N. La Grange Road in La Grange Park.
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 Will County sheriff’s department said.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department has opened a hate investigation into the attack.
“I am heartbroken by the abhorrent killing of Wadea Al-Fayoume,” he said.
The FBI office in Chicago said it was working with Will County authorities.
Late Sunday on X, President Joe Biden posted, “Jill and I were sickened to learn of the brutal murder of a child and the attempted murder of the child’s mother yesterday in Illinois. Our condolences and prayers are with the family.”
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 United States. 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, spoke briefly in Arabic at the CAIR news conference. “Gratitude to God in any situation,” he said as Rehab translated.
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.
“I am shocked. Even though she is Muslim and they are ... Catholic or Christian, I didn’t see this problem between them,” Jagodzinski said of the two families.
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.
The attack comes as tensions in Gaza have escalated since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas and retaliatory airstrikes. More than 2,670 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting erupted, and more than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, the vast majority of them civilians.
Rehab said harmful and “one-sided” rhetoric from the media has intensified prejudice and led to violence.
Some area residents stopped by the home Sunday afternoon to show support for the victims, including a woman who said she didn’t know the victims personally but dropped off flowers.
Bolingbrook resident Wally Harazin, who drove his family to Plainfield to show solidarity with fellow Muslims, viewed the attack as personal; he has relatives in Gaza. He criticized what he says is unfair coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, leading to bias against Muslims and those from Middle Eastern countries.
“How can we protect ourselves from the lies of the media, for a lunatic like this to kill a 6-year-old?” he asked. “That’s hatred. That is absolutely hatred.”
He added: “How can I protect my kids? How can every Muslim in this country, that we call free, how can they protect their kids. Is this the last hate crime that is going to be against Muslims? I do not think so.”
At the news conference, Yousef Hannon, the boy’s uncle and a former Chicago Public Schools teacher, decried the anti-Islamic commentary he’s seen since last week’s attack: “It hurts me every day.”
Hannon said his family members living in Gaza are facing power outages and food and water shortages under the Israeli occupation. He hasn’t been in touch with them for three days.
“This picture has to be changed,” he said.
The Anti-Defamation League issued a statement on X: “We’re disgusted and horrified. ... We express our condolences to the Muslim community and categorically reject all anti-Muslim hate.”
In a statement Sunday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said: “To take a six year old child’s life in the name of bigotry is nothing short of evil. Wadea should be heading to school in the morning. Instead, his parents will wake up without their son. This wasn’t just a murder — it was a hate crime. And every single Illinoisan — including our Muslim, Jewish and Palestinian neighbors — deserves to live free from the threat of such evil.”
In a statement Monday morning, Mayor Brandon Johnson said: “I am devastated by the murder of a six-year-old Palestinian American, Wadea Al-Fayoume, and the attempted murder of his mother in Plainfield, Illinois. This despicable hate crime is a shameful reminder of the destructive role Islamophobia plays in our society.”
“We grieve alongside his family and the Muslim, Arab and Palestinian communities in our state as we reckon with this unthinkable loss,” Johnson said in the statement. “We also pray for his mother’s recovery. We will never forget Wadea who was taken from us much too soon. May God rest his soul in eternal peace and may peace reign here on Earth.”
Contributing: Violet Miller
