Illinois landlord indicted with hate crime charge in fatal stabbing of Palestinian boy

The man accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old Palestinian boy and attacking his mother was indicted on murder and hate crime charges in Will County, Illinois, on Thursday.

Joseph Czuba, 71, faces three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of hate crime in connection with a knife attack, one count of attempted first-degree murder, and two counts of aggravated battery that killed Wadea Al-Fayoume, 6, and hospitalized his mother, Hanaan Shahin, 32.

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Will County Circuit Court Judge Donald DeWilkins ordered Czuba held in custody at Will County Jail, and his next court hearing is set for Monday in Joliet. On Friday, DeWilkins said he would allow photos to be taken at the hearing on Monday, but there would be no recordings in any shape or form allowed in the courtroom.

Prosecutors said last week that Czuba, who was the family’s landlord, was pushed to attack his Muslim tenants at their shared home in Plainfield Township after listening to conservative talk radio discussion of the war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.

The FBI and the Department of Justice’s civil rights division are investigating the incident as well after finding enough evidence to find that Al-Fayoume’s and Shahin’s deaths were because they were Muslim.

Czuba told Shahin “he was angry at her for what was going on in Jerusalem,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing via CBS News. He believed he and his wife were “in danger” and was worried that Shahin was going to “call over her Palestinian friends or family to harm them,” prosecutors said in court filings.

The landlord attacked Shahin with a large knife, and she ran to the bathroom to call 911, but she was unable to get her son in the bathroom, as well. While Shahin was in the bathroom, Czuba killed Al-Fayoume.

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Police said Al-Fayoume was stabbed 26 times on Oct. 14 and later died at the hospital from his injuries. A pathologist removed a “twelve-inch serrated military style knife that has a seven-inch blade” from the child’s body during his autopsy, police said.

Czuba had stabbed Shahin more than a dozen times, according to the Will County Sheriff’s Office.