The homicide of Wadee Alfayoumi and assault on his mom stand as one of many worst hate crimes within the US since Gaza struggle started.
A United States landlord who was jailed for many years for the horrific October 2023 stabbing loss of life of a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy, and for critically injuring his mom, has died in jail.
Joseph Czuba, 73, died on Thursday within the custody of the Illinois Division of Corrections, the Chicago Solar-Instances reported on Saturday, citing the Will County Sheriff’s Workplace. The legislation enforcement company didn’t return a name searching for touch upon the loss of life, based on the Related Press information company.
The homicide of the boy, Wadee Alfayoumi, and the assault on his mom, Hanan Shaheen, was one of many earliest and worst hate crime incidents within the US because the begin of Israel’s struggle on Gaza.
Three months in the past, Czuba was sentenced to 53 years in jail for the assault. He was discovered responsible in February of homicide, tried homicide and hate-crime costs for Alfayoumi’s loss of life and for wounding Shaheen.
Czuba attacked them on October 14, 2023, as a result of they had been Muslims, and as a response to the Hamas-led October 7 assaults on southern Israel.
Ahmed Rehab, the manager director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Chicago workplace, mentioned in a press release on Saturday that “this wicked killer has died, however the hate remains to be alive and properly”.
Proof at trial included harrowing testimony from Shaheen and her frantic 911 name, together with bloody crime scene photographs and a police video. Jurors deliberated for lower than 90 minutes earlier than handing in a verdict.
The household had been renting rooms in Czuba’s dwelling in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64km) from Chicago, when the assault occurred.
Central to the prosecutors’ case was harrowing testimony from the boy’s mom, who mentioned Czuba attacked her earlier than transferring on to her son, insisting they needed to go away as a result of they had been Muslim.
“He advised me: ‘You, as a Muslim, should die,’” mentioned Shaheen throughout her testimony.
Czuba’s ex-wife, Mary, additionally testified for the prosecution, saying he had change into agitated about Israel’s struggle on Gaza, which has now killed almost 60,000 Palestinians.
Police mentioned Czuba pulled a knife from a holder on a belt and stabbed the boy 26 occasions. Among the bloody crime scene photographs had been so specific that the choose agreed to show tv screens displaying them away from the viewers, which included Wadee’s relations.
The case generated headlines world wide and deeply struck the Chicago space’s giant and established Palestinian neighborhood amid rising hostility in opposition to Muslims and Palestinians within the US. Wadee’s funeral drew giant crowds, and Plainfield officers have devoted a park playground in his honour.
Different similarly-motivated incidents within the US embody the tried drowning of a three-year-old Palestinian-American woman in Texas, the stabbing of a Palestinian-American man in Texas, the beating of a Muslim man in New York, a violent mob assault on pro-Palestinian protesters in California and a Florida capturing of two Israeli guests whom the suspect mistook for Palestinians.
Three younger Palestinian males had been additionally shot close to a college campus in Vermont simply weeks after Alfayoumi was stabbed to loss of life.