'She's The Only One With Access': Bank Account Set Up For Mom Of Slain 6-Year-Old Boy

PLAINFIELD, IL — A local bank, along with the Will County Sheriff's Office, is working to ensure Hanan Shaheen, the mother of 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi, is not alone after she and her son, who died Oct. 14, were stabbed in their Plainfield Township home.

"The most important thing that she knows is that she's not just the mother of the 6-year-old boy who passed away, but she's a member of our community; she's important to all of us," Christy Lister, with Merchants and Manufacturers Bank, told Patch.

M&M is viewed by many as Plainfield's community bank since it's not owned by a large corporation, according to Will County Sheriff's Office Deputy Chief Dan Jungles.

Jungles reached out to Lister, who works as a mortgage loan originator out of the location at 990 Essington Road in Joliet, to discuss setting up the account when she told him, "It's kind of fate that you called me because it's all I've been thinking about, Hanan and how she's doing," he said.

Shaheen and her son, Wadee, had rented two rooms from 71-year-old Joseph Czuba for two years. They shared the house along with Czuba and his wife. On the morning of Oct. 14, authorities said the landlord confronted Shaheen about the conflict between Hamas and Israel in the Middle East before proceeding to stab her more than a dozen times and Wadee 26 times, killing him, Patch reported.

Police and prosecutors called the stabbing a hate crime motivated by the family's Muslim religion.

"This was a brutal act of hatred that was perpetrated on the 14th," Jungles said. "In this area, you don't see charges filed for hate crime, especially involving violence."

The 32-year-old Palestinian woman was hospitalized that day in serious condition and released almost a week later. Jungles said she is "recovering nicely. She's obviously got a long road ahead of her, both physically and mentally and emotionally, as to what had happened."

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"She doesn't really have the necessary support to help her recover because she has no family residing within the United States," Jungles told Patch. "The only family she has are her two other boys, which she has with an ex-husband, and very few friends. We took it upon ourselves to help her get her life back together."

Lister echoed Jungles's sentiments and said the bank account and subsequent donations will "not only help her move forward but help her get all the financial help she can get."

What sets their efforts apart is all funds deposited into the account will go directly to Shaheen, who worked with staff to authorize and set it up.

"We wanted to make sure she knew she wasn't alone," Lister said. "She's the only one on the account; she's the only one with access."

Jungles emphasized: "We wanted to make sure that people knew that this was 100 percent going to go to her, anything that we raise [will] because our people are the ones helping her put it together."

The sheriff's office is aware of other fundraising efforts made by various organizations and local restaurants, but not all groups received approval from Shaheen to fundraise on her behalf, according to Jungles.

"We know no one has reached out to Hanan because we're the only ones who have talked to her," he said.

One of the most prevalent fundraising efforts has been made by Launch Good, which has raised more than $600,000 since its inception Oct. 15.

Jungles said the sheriff's office has begun working with Launch Good, "but I'm not sure how that's going to work out with that money because it's out of her control; it's out of our control," Jungles said. Since the fundraiser's inception, the organization has been in talks with Shaheen, who authorized them to collect funds on her behalf, but it's unclear how much of the money will go to Shaheen herself.

Locals interested in donating to Shaheen's bank account have a couple of options to do so. Lister encouraged potential donors to stop at one of Merchants and Manufacturers Bank's locations or mail a check to any of its branches, since the bank is not able to receive electronic donations.

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