Mother testifies in trial over Palestinian-American boy's murder

Joseph Czuba has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, attempted murder and hate crime charges

Wadee Alfayoumi, 6, was stabbed to death in Chicago in October 2023. Photo: Family

Jurors were shown police video footage, officer testimony and a black knife holder on Wednesday at the murder and hate crime trial for an Illinois landlord accused of fatally stabbing a Palestinian-American boy, aged 6, in 2023.

Joseph Czuba, 73, faces first-degree murder, attempted murder and hate crime charges in the death of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mother, Hanan Shaheen, in October 2023 in suburban Chicago. Authorities allege that Mr Czuba – who was renting them rooms in his house – attacked them because they were Muslim and Palestinian.

Several Will County sheriff's deputies testified on the second day of the trial about how they found Ms Shaheen and Mr Czuba on the day of the crime, as prosecutors showed footage from their body cameras.

“I observed a female subject, bleeding profusely from the face,” Matthew Starcevich, a deputy sheriff, said of Ms Shaheen. After that, he went outside and saw Mr Czuba lying on the ground near the single-family home in Plainfield, about 64km from Chicago.

The crime scene evidence comes a day after emotional testimony from Ms Shaheen and disturbing videos of the boy's body. Prosecutors described how Mr Czuba allegedly pulled a knife from a belt holder and stabbed the child 26 times after attacking his mother, who had hidden in the bathroom to call emergency services. Police said a knife was still in the child's body when he was found by police.

“This happened because this defendant was afraid that a war that had started on October 7, 2023, a half a world away in the Middle East, was going to come to his doorstep,” Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state’s attorney, said during opening statements on Tuesday. “This happened because Hanan and Wadee were Muslim.”

Mr Czuba has pleaded not guilty.

“It is easy to get lost in the horror of those images,” said Kylie Blatti, a Will County public defender, said in a preview of the defence. “But the prosecution can’t convince you of their case simply by showing you how horrible the death of a little boy was.”

Ms Shaheen, who shared a kitchen and a living room with Mr Czuba and his wife, said they had not had any issues before in the two years they had rented the rooms, but after the start of the war, Mr Czuba told her they had to move out because Muslims were not welcome. She urged him to “Pray for peace.” Later, he confronted Ms Shaheen and attacked her, allegedly stabbing her several times.

“He told me, ‘You, as a Muslim, must die,’” said Ms Shaheen. She explained that she then heard screaming as Mr Czuba allegedly began attacking her son.

“The landlord is killing me and my baby,” she said in a recording played in court, according to CBS Chicago. “I am in the bathroom waiting for you.”

The boy – whose name was initially spelt Wadea Al Fayoume by authorities – was later pronounced dead. Ms Shaheen had more than a dozen stab wounds, and it took her weeks to recover.

“This came out of nowhere, nobody saw it coming,” Yousef Hannon, a close family friend who Wadee had affectionately referred to as his uncle, told The National in the days after the attack. “It's very, very, very devastating. As Palestinians, we feel very unsafe right now.”

Joe Biden, who was US president at the time, soon after announced a White House strategy to counter Islamophobia and hate against Muslims and Arab Americans, made more acute since the start of the Israel-Gaza war.