After regularly listening to conservative talk radio and becoming “heavily interested” in the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas, Plainfield Township landlord Joseph Czuba on Saturday morning paid a visit to his Muslim tenants.
Hanaan Shahin answered the knock on the door, according to Will County prosecutors, and Czuba told her he was angry at her for what was happening in Jerusalem.
“Let’s pray for peace,” she said.
In response, authorities said Monday, Czuba attacked her and her 6-year-old son with a large knife, leaving Shahin bleeding profusely from the face. The boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, was found lying in bed with multiple stab wounds to his chest. He was pronounced dead soon afterward.
Czuba, 71, was ordered detained Monday on charges including first-degree murder, attempted murder and hate crime.
Meanwhile, federal authorities including the FBI and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice have launched an investigation into the attack. A statement released Monday said the FBI “takes the investigation of hate crimes extremely seriously” but did not provide further information, citing the ongoing probe. Federal prosecutors can seek the death penalty for defendants convicted of causing a death ruled a hate crime.
Hundreds of mourners turned out for the boy’s funeral Monday, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, at the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, where Walea’s small white casket lay draped with a Palestinian flag.
His father, Oday Al-Fayoume, prayed a few feet away, looking at the casket as he kneeled and rose. Shahin could not attend the services, since she was recovering from her injuries.
Walea “is not the only one under attack,” said Imam Jamal Said at the funeral service.
“There are a million children being slaughtered, literally, in the Holy Land,” he continued. “Our hope is the people with humanity, with understanding, do not rush taking one side without even hearing the other.”
Before the funeral, leaders of the Muslim and Palestinian community gathered outside the mosque to condemn the attack and criticize public officials and the media for fueling anti-Palestinian fervor. The failure to publicize suffering in Gaza dehumanized the Palestinian people, they said.
“This heinous crime did not occur in a vacuum,” said Oussama Jammal, who is on the board of directors of the Mosque Foundation. “Public officials and our media are acting irresponsible.”
Imam Omar Suleiman of Texas asked reporters and politicians to reflect on what type of hate must be “manufactured” for someone to commit such a brutal attack on a child.
Palestinian children living in Gaza look just like the Plainfield Township child whom Plainfield Village President John Argoudelis called “all-American,” he said.
“When we mourn Wadea, we are mourning all of those children,” Suleiman said.
After the funeral, Al-Fayoume helped carry his son’s casket outside. There, a large crowd gathered around the mosque’s exit, chanting as it was placed in a hearse.
Later on, hundreds more gathered at Parkholm Cemetery, standing in the mud around the boy’s burial plot.
Some in the crowd waved towering Palestinian flags. Others put their young children on their shoulders. The imams who spoke over the boy’s grave said he will go to heaven because of his young, pure heart.
“This graveyard is a reminder,” Suleiman said at the cemetery. “It’s a reminder for all the children in Gaza,”
“We are left with this emptiness, this void. It is our responsibility to make sure that no more blood is shed for no reason,” the imam continued.
The crowd began to chant in support of Palestine as the burial ended, but quieted when an imam asked them to wait until the proper venue to demonstrate. Many lingered until they finally got close to the burial plot. They reached down and touched the dirt covering the boy’s grave.
A fundraising page created by Ahmed Rehab, executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations-Chicago, has raised more than $334,000 by Monday evening to help cover funeral expenses, hospital expenses, housing expenses for the mother and a memorial for Wadea.
Shahin and Al-Fayoume came to the United States about a decade ago to flee the conflict in the Middle East. The couple has since split up, and for the past two years Shahin had lived with Wadea on the ground floor of the house Czuba owned without incident, relatives said at a news conference hosted by CAIR Sunday.
Shahin related the horrifying details of the attack to her former husband, CAIR leaders said. Czuba knocked on the door and began to choke and stab Shahin. She escaped to a bathroom and called 911. When she came out, she found her fatally stabbed son.
According to the family, Czuba yelled anti-Muslim rhetoric as he attacked her, CAIR leaders said Sunday.
Will County prosecutors recounted a similar narrative in court Monday, and revealed that Czuba’s wife told authorities he regularly listened to right-wing radio and had become particularly interested in recent events in Israel.
Czuba came to believe that Shahin “was going to call over her Palestinian friends or family to harm them,” and he wanted the mother and son to move out, prosecutors said in a court filing. Czuba’s wife also told authorities he recently withdrew $1,000 “in case the U.S. grid went down.”
Czuba also told his wife “an event was going to occur” on Saturday — the day of the attack — but did not explain, prosecutors said.
After the attack, police found Czuba outside with a knife holster on his waist and several pocketknives at his feet, Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Fitzgerald said in court Monday.
Czuba appeared at the hearing in a red Will County Jail jumpsuit with his hair unkempt.
His defense attorney, Kylie Blatti of the Will County public defender’s office, requested that he be released under electronic monitoring, saying he is an Air Force veteran, is self-employed and owns property in Plainfield and Joliet. He also suffers from medical problems, she said.
Judge Donald DeWilkins denied the request, ordering Czuba held in custody. His next court hearing was scheduled for Oct. 30.
On Monday morning, police had blocked off the driveway leading to the Plainfield Township home where the attack occurred. A small memorial with flowers, balloons and teddy bears had been placed outside.
Another of Czuba’s tenants, who lives in a Joliet building owned by Czuba and his wife, said he was shocked to learn from a Tribune reporter that the landlord had been charged with the deadly knife attack.
“I’d never say he’d do something like that,” said the man, who declined to give his name.
The man said he saw Czuba and his wife fairly often, either working on the apartment building or at the couple’s Plainfield home. He never met Shahin or her son, but he was saddened to learn they were the victims.
Al-Fayoume said his son had “loved everything” during his short life, Rehab said at the news conference Sunday.
“He loved everybody. He loved his toys. He loved basketball, soccer. He loved to color. He loved to swing around. He loved his parents. He loved his family and his friends. He loved life,” Rehab said.
The boy celebrated a birthday on Oct. 6. In a photo from his party, he is seen wearing a blue birthday hat for the celebration.
“That’s how we want to remember him. There’s no shame for us. There’s shame for the perpetrator of this act. And there’s shame for those who create these atmospheres,” Rehab said.
Yousef Hannon, one of the boy’s uncles, said it had been three days since he had heard from the rest of his family back in Gaza.
The Plainfield attack follows a massive escalation in the decades long conflict between Israel and Palestine, and specifically Hamas, which has been declared a terrorist organization. Hamas fighters from the long-blockaded Gaza Strip launched a surprise attack against Israel over a week ago.
More than 1,400 Israelis were killed in the attack, the vast majority civilians. At least 155 others, including children, were captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza, according to Israel.
Israel responded with a siege of Gaza, home to 2.3 million people and one of the densest areas in the world. Israeli bombing attacks have led to overflowing hospitals as Gaza runs critically low on food, water and basic medical supplies with electricity also cut off by Israel.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 2,670 Palestinians have been killed and 9,600 wounded since the fighting erupted. In one Khan Younis hospital, many of the wounded suffering from severe blast injuries were children under the age of 3.
The Associated Press contributed.
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