The heartbroken father of a six-year-old Palestinian boy has revealed that his brave son’s final words to his mother were ‘I’m fine.’
Wadea Al-Fayoume was pronounced dead after he was stabbed 26 times with a twelve-inch serrated military-style knife, with police charging his landlord Joseph M. Czuba with his murder.
Czuba, a 71-year-old Chicago resident, was arrested after Illinois cops said he ‘brutally attacked’ the Palestinian-American child and his mother on Saturday as he allegedly shouted anti-Muslim slurs.
He has now been charged with a hate crime, with police alleging he singled out the victims because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas.
Now Wadea’s father, Oday Al-Fayoume, has spoken out, explaining that his son and ex-wife knew the landlord and had even shared a ‘good relationship’ with him before the horrific attack.
‘It is hard to picture this man holding a knife about to stab my son,’ he said. ‘I keep thinking that my son was probably running towards him before getting stabbed, trying to give him a hug.’
Wadea Al-Fayoume had recently turned six. He was killed in a crime which authorities believe was influenced by the Israel-Hamas war
Police charged 71-year-old suburban Chicago man Joseph M. Czuba (pictured) Sunday with a hate crime for allegedly fatally stabbing 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume
Wadea’s father, Oday Al-Fayoume, has spoken out, explaining that his son and ex-wife knew the landlord
Paying tribute to his young son, Oday told The Daily Beast that Wadea was ‘basically a small angel in the form of a person’.
Wadea’s mom, identified as 32-year-old Hanaan Shahin, suffered more than a dozen stab wounds. She remains hospitalized Sunday but is expected to survive.
Authorities did not release the names of the two victims, but the boy’s paternal uncle, Yousef Hannon, spoke at a news conference on Sunday hosted by the Chicago chapter Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
‘We are not animals, we are humans. We want people to see us as humans, to feel us as humans, to deal with us as humans, because this is what we are,’ said Hannon, a Palestinian American who emigrated to the U.S. in 1999 to work, including as a public school teacher.
Officers found Wadea and his mother late Saturday morning at a home in an unincorporated area of Plainfield Township, roughly 40 miles southwest of Chicago.
Czuba was found Saturday outside ‘sitting upright outside on the ground near the driveway of the residence’ with a cut on his forehead, according to police in Will County.
He was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of hate crimes and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
Wadea, who had recently turned six, and his mother had lived on the ground floor of the house for two years, according to the the local chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Citing text messages from the mother to the boy’s father, the suspect reportedly yelled, ‘You Muslims must die!’ ahead of the stabbing, according to CAIR-Chicago.
Paying tribute to his young son, Oday told The Daily Beast that Wadea was ‘basically a small angel in the form of a person’
Speaking alongside the family members of the victims, CAIR Executive Director Ahmed Rehab said Czuba choked Shahin after they’d allowed him in their apartment
The Muslim civil liberties organization called the crime ‘our worst nightmare,’ and part of a disturbing trend since the outbreak of violence in the Middle East.
Speaking alongside the family members of the victims, CAIR Executive Director Ahmed Rehab said Czuba choked Shahin after they had allowed him into their apartment.
She briefly escaped to the bathroom to call 911 but by the time she returned, Czuba had found her son and murdered him, Rehab alleged.
In response to the increased threats, the Illinois State Police are communicating with federal law-enforcement and reaching out to Muslim communities and religious leaders to offer support, according to a press release from Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker.
‘To take a six-year-old child’s life in the name of bigotry is nothing short of evil,’ Pritzker said.
‘Wadea should be heading to school in the morning. Instead, his parents will wake up without their son.
‘This wasn’t just a murder – it was a hate crime. And every single Illinoisan – including our Muslim, Jewish, and Palestinian neighbors – deserves to live free from the threat of such evil.’
The Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted to social media: ‘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.’
The Justice Department opened a hate crime investigation into the events leading up to the attack, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
President Joe Biden commented on the boy’s death, saying in a statement: ‘This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are.’
In recent days, police in US cities and federal authorities have been on high alert for violence driven by antisemitic or Islamophobic sentiments.
FBI officials, along with Jewish and Muslim groups, have reported an increase in hateful and threatening rhetoric.
FBI Director Chris Wray said on a call with reporters Sunday that the FBI is also moving quickly to mitigate the threats.
A senior FBI official who spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Bureau said the majority of the threats that the FBI has responded to were not judged to be credible, adding that the FBI takes them all seriously nonetheless.
The official also said that agents have been encouraged to be ‘aggressive’ and proactive in communicating over the last week with faith-based leaders.
The official said the purpose is not to make anyone feel targeted but rather to ask clerics and others to report to law enforcement anything that seems suspicious.
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