'Unthinkable, Senseless Crime': Muslim Community Responds To 6-Year-Old's Killing

PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, IL — Wadea Al-Fayoume had just turned 6. He loved basketball, soccer and coloring.

Around 11:30 a.m. Saturday, his family’s landlord, 71-year-old Joseph M. Czuba of Plainfield, entered their Plainfield Township home and stabbed Wadea 26 times, taking his young life, according to police. His mother, 32-year-old Hanaan Shahin, was stabbed more than a dozen times and hospitalized in serious condition, but is expected to survive, police have said.

6-Year-Old Killed By Landlord In Hate Crime Stabbing: Police

The mother and son were targeted due to their Muslim faith in a hate crime connected to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East involving Hamas and Israel, according to police.

In a press conference Sunday, Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Chicago office, described Wadea as a typical 6-year-old with a loving and playful spirit.

“He has no clue about these larger issues happening in the world that he was made to pay for,” Rehab said at the press conference, held at the Muslim Community Center in Chicago and streamed on Facebook.

Wadea's family is Palestinian-American, from the West Bank, although Wadea was born in the U.S., according to Rehab, who was joined by the child’s father, Oday Al-Fayoume.

Rehab decried the rhetoric surrounding the recent violence in the Middle East, referencing the Islamaphobia that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“This unthinkable, senseless crime did not happen in a vacuum,” he said in a news release.

Wadea and his mother had lived for two years on the ground floor of the house in the 16200 block of South Lincoln Highway, according to CAIR.

Shahin called 911 after attempting to fight off Czuba before hiding in a bathroom, police said, adding she and her son were found in a bedroom in the home, stabbed in the chest, torso and upper extremities. Wadea was brought to a hospital in critical condition and died, according to police, who said a 7-inch serrated blade was removed from his abdomen.

Boy, 6, Fatally Stabbed In Plainfield Home, Woman Injured: Sheriff

Czuba is charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of committing a hate crime and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, police said. He remained in custody at the Will County jail Sunday and is due in court Monday afternoon, according to jail records.