Illinois man who stabbed 6-year-old Palestinian American boy to death dies in prison

An Illinois man who was sentenced to 53 years in prison for the murder of a young Palestinian American boy in a 2023 hate crime that shocked the nation has died in prison, authorities said Saturday.

Joseph Czuba, 73, died on Thursday while serving his sentence, the Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Officials did not release his cause of death.

In February, Czuba was convicted of first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crimes for fatally stabbing 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and injuring the boy’s mother just days after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel and the launch of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

Authorities said Czuba targeted the boy’s family “due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.” The mother and son were living in a room rented in Czuba’s home in Plainfield Township, a suburb of Chicago.

Czuba stabbed the young boy 26 times and attacked the boy’s mother, Hanan Shaheen, leaving her critically injured with 12 stab wounds, according to officials.

Czuba was sentenced 53 years in prison for killing Wadee and attacking Shaheen, after pleading not guilty.

Shaheen, who moved to the U.S. from the West Bank as a teenager nearly 15 years ago, testified that in the days before the stabbings, Czuba told her “your people” are killing Jewish people. Czuba also demanded that she and her son move out of his home, she said.

She added that she and her son had no prior issues with Czuba in the roughly two years they lived in the home, where she and her son shared a kitchen and living room with Czuba and his then-wife.

On the day of the attacks, she testified that Czuba barged his way into her room, held her down and stabbed her more than a dozen times. She said Czuba put his fingers in her mouth at one point and tried breaking her teeth. Throughout the encounter, Shaheen said she pulled at Czuba’s hair while he shouted, “You must die!”

Her son stood in the corner of the room and watched the encounter fearfully, Shaheen testfied.

Czuba told the young boy, “Wadee, I will take care of you. I will raise you,” and, “Don’t tell people I killed your mom,” as he stabbed his mother, Shaheen said.

Shaheen said she then escaped to the bathroom and called 911 while she could hear Czuba stabbing her son.

“He is killing my baby,” she said repeatedly to the dispatcher, according to a recording of the 911 call played at the trial.

An attorney for Shaheen did not immediately return a request for comment.

Wadee’s killing stunned the nation and drew national condemnation at a time when tensions around the country’s Muslim and Jewish communities were intensifying after the Oct. 7 attacks.

Then-President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris issued statements condemning the killing, saying that “this horrific act of hate has no place in America.”

“The child’s Palestinian Muslim family came to America seeking what we all seek — a refuge to live, learn, and pray in peace,” he said.

Ahmed Rehab, the executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Chicago office, said in a statement on Saturday that “this depraved killer has died, but the hate is still alive and well.”