'Sickened': Biden, Pritzker React To Hate Crime Slaying Of 6-Year-Old Boy

PLAINFIELD, IL — Plainfield, and much of the country, is rocked by the death of 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume, who was stabbed to death Saturday morning in what the Will County Sheriff's Office has called a religion-motivated hate crime.

The FBI also said its Chicago field office, along with the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, have opened an investigation into the killing.

"Wadea should be heading to school in the morning," Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a statement. "Instead, his parents will wake up without their son."

Wadea and his mother, 32-year-old Hanaan Shahin, 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.

Around 11:30 a.m. Saturday, police said the 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. Shahin was stabbed more than a dozen times and hospitalized in serious condition, but is expected to survive, police have said.

"This act of hate against a Palestinian Muslim family has no place in America," President Joe Biden wrote in a statement on Twitter, saying he and First Lady Jill Biden were "sickened to learn of the brutal murder of a child and attempted murder of the child's mother."

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Biden was one of multiple elected leaders from across the country to respond to the stabbing. Pritzker said Wadea's death "wasn't just a murder — it was a hate crime."

"Every single Illinoisan — including our Muslim, Jewish, and Palestinian neighbors — deserves to live free from the threat of such evil," Pritzker said.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson echoed Pritzker's sentiments, saying, "This despicable hate crime is a shameful reminder of the destructive role Islamophobia plays in our society."

Wadea's family is Palestinian-American, from the West Bank, although Wadea was born in the U.S., according to Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations's Chicago office. Rehab was joined in a press conference Sunday by the boy's father, Oday Al-Fayoume.

"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 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, Patch reported. 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.

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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.

Visitation for Wadea will take place from 10:30 to 12:30 a.m. Monday at Hann Funeral Home, 8230 S. Harlem Ave. in Bridgeview. The funeral procession will travel south to The Mosque Foundation, 7360 W. 93rd Street, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Wadea will be buried at Parkholm Cemetery, 2501 N. LaGrange Road in LaGrange Park.

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The FBI said federal authorities are working closely with the Will County Sheriff's Office and Will County State's Attorney's office in investigating the stabbings as a hate crime.

"The FBI takes the investigation of hate crimes extremely seriously and encourages members of the community with information regarding this incident—or other potential hate crimes—to contact us at 1-800-CALL-FBI," officials said in a statement.