The Illinois man convicted of stabbing a six-year-old Palestinian American boy to death in an anti-Muslim hate crime died in jail, according to local media reports that cited the Will County Sheriff’s Office. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, a cause of death has not been determined as of Saturday, July 26.
Officials from the Will County Sheriff’s Office told WGN Joseph Czuba, 73, died while in the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections.
The boy, Wadee Alfayoumi, and his mother, Hanan Shaheen, had been living in a room she rented in Czuba’s house in Plainfield at the time of the October 2023 attack. Czuba stabbed Alfayoumi 26 times, and also stabbed Shaheen more than a dozen times, prosecutors said. Shaheen was seriously injured but survived.
During the trial, Shaheen testified that while Czuba was stabbing her, he said, “You, as a Muslim, must die,” The Associated Press reported.
Prosecutors said Czuba targeted Alfayoumi and Shaheen for their religion, as well as the fact that the Israel-Hamas war had started just days prior. His now-ex-wife stated during the trial that Czuba had been agitated by the war, the Associated Press wrote.
On Friday, May 2, a judge sentenced Czuba to 53 years behind bars after a jury found him guilty of murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crime charges.
Hundreds of people came to Alfayoumi’s funeral, and in June, a local park’s sensory playground was dedicated to him. The Will County Sheriff’s Office said the dedication drew a large crowd.
“This monument will be in a place where children of all backgrounds can laugh, play, and grow together,” Will County Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Dan Jungles said at the time. “A place that stands as a living reminder that love is stronger than hate.”
Organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations said there has been an increase in anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic rhetoric and attacks since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on Oct. 7, 2023.
In 2023, CAIR reported 8,061 complaints nationwide in 2023, the highest number recorded in its 30-year history. Nearly half of these were from the last three months of that year.
CAIR wrote the following year, in 2024, they received an even higher number of reports, 8,658 — marking a 7.4% increase.
