Joseph Czuba, a 73-year-old man from Illinois sentenced to a lengthy prison term for the murder of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American Wadea al-Fayoume, was found dead in state custody on Sunday.
The cause of his death was not disclosed, though his attorney noted that Czuba had been diagnosed with advanced-stage cancer prior to his passing.
In May 2024, Czuba was sentenced to 53 years in prison for al-Fayoume’s murder in October 2023 and the severe wounding of the boy’s mother, Hanan Shaheen, in their home in a Chicago suburb. Prosecutors said that Czuba, motivated by the victims’ Muslim faith, attacked them days after the Hamas attack and the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
Czuba, who had rented an apartment to Shaheen for about two years in Plainfield, approximately 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Chicago, carried out the attack shortly after the Hamas massacre and the ensuing war.
Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: Google Play: https://bit.ly/4eJ37pE | Apple App Store: https://bit.ly/3ZL7iNv
Court documents revealed that Czuba became paranoid and violent after listening to radio broadcasts about the Middle East conflict. His ex-wife testified during the trial that he had grown agitated and obsessive in the days leading up to the incident due to news reports.
According to Shaheen’s testimony, Czuba demanded she vacate the apartment, hurled anti-Muslim slurs at her and then stormed into her room, stabbing her more than 12 times in the back, chest and face.
He then turned on her son, who had just celebrated his sixth birthday, stabbing him 26 times with such brutality that prosecutors noted Czuba left the knife embedded in the child’s body. Authorities found Czuba outside the home, his body and hands covered in blood.
Shaheen managed to lock herself in the bathroom and call for help. In her testimony, she recounted the terrifying moments, describing her son’s desperate cries of “Stop, no,” as he begged for his life, to no avail.
Prosecutor Michael Fitzgerald told the court, “If it wasn’t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy’s body. This happened because Wadea and Hanan are Muslim. He feared a war halfway across the world would somehow reach his doorstep.”
The boy’s death sent shockwaves across the United States and was described as one of the most severe hate crimes since the war began. Al-Fayoume’s funeral drew large crowds and a children’s park in his hometown was named in his honor.