An Illinois landlord fatally stabbed a 6-year-old boy and wounded his mother, targeting them because they were Muslim and he was enraged about the Israel-Hamas war, police said Sunday.
Joseph Czuba, 71, was arrested and charged with a hate crime over the Saturday afternoon attack in Plainfield, a suburb southwest of Chicago.
Palestinian-American Wadea Al-Fayoume and his mother, Hanaan Shahin, were identified as the victims by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago. Shahin, 32, was expected to survive her injuries, according to police.
Czuba knocked on their door Saturday afternoon with a knife in his hand and immediately began attempting to choke and stab Shahin after she opened up, she said. Czuba shouted, “You Muslims must die!” according to her account, which was shared with CAIR.
“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 Facebook post.
Little Wadea was stabbed 26 times, according to the county coroner’s autopsy. Shahin was stabbed more than a dozen times, police said.
When officers arrived at the scene on Saturday afternoon, Czuba was sitting outside the home and suffering from a forehead wound. He was briefly hospitalized under police guard before cops took him to county jail.
The crazed attacker was charged Sunday with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and two hate crime counts.
“Our hearts are heavy, and our prayers are with the darling boy and his mother,” said Ahmed Rehab, CAIR-Chicago Executive Director. “It is our worst nightmare.”
With News Wire Services
Joseph Wilkinson
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