Trial begins for man accused of stabbing 6-year-old Palestinian boy, committing hate crime
Jury selection began Monday in the trial for an Illinois man accused of stabbing a 6-year-old Muslim boy to death and seriously wounding his mother in what authorities described as a hate crime.
Prosecutors allege that Joseph Czuba, 73, was motived by a 'hatred of Muslims' when he stabbed Wadea Al-Fayoume, a Palestinian American boy, and his mother, Hanaan Shahin, more than a dozen times in an Oct. 2023 attack.
Czuba pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and two counts of committing hate crimes. He has been held without bail.
More:One year later: Anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hate incidents spike since Oct. 7 attacks
On Oct. 14, 2023, Will County deputies found Wadea and his mother suffering from severe stab wounds inside a bedroom she rented from Czuba in a suburb about 40 miles outside of Chicago. Wadea had been stabbed 26 times with a military style knife, authorities said. He died from the injuries in a hospital shortly after the attack.
Shahin, who was stabbed more than a dozen times, survived the attack and told authorities what led to the violent encounter.
Czuba had angrily confronted her about the Israel-Hamas War shortly before the attack, according to court documents. After Shahin proposed that they 'pray for peace,' she said Czuba attacked her with a knife. She locked herself in a bathroom, but Wadea was in the bedroom, and she was not able to get him.
Deputies found Wadea unresponsive "lying on a bed on his back shirtless with multiple stab wounds to the chest and what appeared to be a knife inserted" into his abdomen, according to the documents.
More:Father of slain 6-year-old Palestinian American boy files wrongful death lawsuit
Officers found Czuba in the backyard with a cut on his forehead and a knife holster on his belt and several pocketknives next to his feet.
Czuba's wife told investigators her husband feared they would be attacked by people of Middle Eastern descent. Prior to the attack, Czuba's wife said he told her he wanted Shahin and Wadea to move out, saying he believed Shahin would call over 'Palestinian friends or family to harm them.'
The stabbing occurred a week after Hamas' deadly attack on Israel, which saw 1,200 people killed and roughly 250 taken hostage. Israel launched a military offensive against Hamas in the days following the attack. More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since, according to Gaza medical officials.
Wadea's death quickly garnered national attention. Former President Joe Biden denounced the stabbings a day after they occurred and marked the one-year anniversary of the boy's death this past October.
More:Israel sends tanks into West Bank for the first time in more than 20 years
Former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland launched a federal hate crime investigation into the attack. The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution to honor Wadea.
Contributing: Thao Nguyen and Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA TODAY
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