Chicago Islamic group hopes court will ‘make an example’ of man accused of killing 6-year-old boy

Joliet — The trial of Joseph Czuba, the Plainfield Township landlord charged in the stabbing of his two tenants in October 2023, started jury selection of Monday.

Czuba is accused of killing 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and severely injuring the boy’s mother Hanan Shaheen in an attack allegedly motivated by the victims' Palestinian ethnicity and Muslim faith.

Czuba has pled not guilty to the charges of murder, attempted murder, and the charge of committing a hate crime.

As officials filtered into the Will County Courthouse in Joliet on Monday, Joseph Milburn, staff attorney for the Chicago branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights group in the U.S., spoke to the media outside the courthouse on behalf of the victims' family.

“The family are very optimistic for a good result in this trial and that justice will be done,” Milburn said. “To come into someone’s home and stab a person, a child, 26 times due to their religion and race is a heinous crime. Justice in our eyes is seeing Joseph Czuba locked up for the rest of his life, and to have a message sent that hate crimes will not be tolerated.”

CAIR has been working with the family providing media support since Wadee’s death on Oct. 14, 2023, and Milburn said he would be attending the trial to “sit with and be there for the family at this difficult time.”

Neither of the victim’s parents, Shaheen or Wadee’s father Odai Alfayoumi, were in attendance on the first day of the trial.

When asked how Shaheen, who was in critical care for days after the stabbing, was feeling at the start of the trial, Milburn said “there are some things I am not at liberty to disclose.”

In addition to providing support for the family during the investigation and trial, CAIR has been working to raise awareness of hate crimes against Muslims and other racial and religious minorities, something Milburn said the group has seen on the rise since October 2023, when the military conflict between Israel and Hamas began in Gaza.

“We have seen an increase in hate crimes and vandalism and threats to mosques, to the point that many have started looking at increased security during worship times,” Milburn said.

“We ask Muslims, and really everyone, to be vigilant and to report hate crimes when you see them,” Milburn said. “It ensures everyone in our communities are protected.”

The Plainfield community called for community unity and rallied around Wadee’s family in a vigil held a few days after the stabbing.

The Plainfield Park District’s Board of Commissioners earlier this month passed a resolution honoring the memory of Wadee by naming a sensory playground at Van Horn Woods in his remembrance.

The playground is located on the east side of Van Horn Woods, off West Frontage Road and near Interstate 55.

Bill Thomas, president of the park district board, said Wadee’s memory “will live on through the laughter and joy of the children who play here.”