Illinois man killed Muslim boy, 6, in hate crime motivated by Israeli-Hamas war, police say
A 71-year-old man in Plainfield,
Illinois, has been charged with murder and a hate crime after stabbing a child and his mother because they were Muslims in an attack that killed a six-year-old boy and left the adult seriously wounded.
In a statement
posted to the Will county sheriff’s office social media page, law enforcement responded to an emergency call made by a 32-year-old woman who alleged her landlord had attacked her with a knife.
The Will county sheriff’s office said: “Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.”
On the scene, officers found the 71-year-old suspect sitting upright on the ground near the home’s driveway and inside found two stabbing victims, a 32-year-old woman and 6-year-old boy who each suffered over a dozen stab wounds to their chest, torso and arms.
The suspect was identified as 71-year-old Joseph M Czuba and police said he was the property’s landlord.
“Joseph Czuba did not make any statements to detectives regarding his involvement in this heinous attack. Despite the suspect not providing a statement to detectives, personnel were able to gather enough information through interviews and evidence to formally charge Joseph Czuba with numerous criminal offenses,” said the Will county sheriff office in a
statement.
Czuba was charged with murder, two counts of hate crimes and other offenses.
The child was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced deceased, and the woman is hospitalized in serious condition, but expected to survive.
CAIR International, the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the US, said in a
statement on social media: “We are shocked and disturbed to learn that a landlord in Chicago expressing anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian views broke into a Muslim family’s apartment and attacked them with a knife, injuring the mother and killing her 6-year-old son, Wadea Al-Fayoume.”