Newsweek: Landlord Who Killed Palestinian Boy in Hate Crime Dies in Prison

Adeola Adeosun

Jul 26, 2025 at 10:06 PM EDT

Joseph M. Czuba, the 73-year-old landlord convicted of murdering 6-year-old Palestinian American boy Wadee Alfayoumi and injuring his mother during a 2023 hate crime, has died while serving a 53-year prison sentence.

Czuba died Thursday in the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections, according to a statement from the Will County Sheriff's Office.

Police say Czuba singled out the victims in reaction to the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas and because of their faith.

Authorities in the U.S. have been on high alert for violence driven by Islamophobic or antisemitic sentiment, while both Muslim and Jewish groups have reported a rise in hateful rhetoric as Israel continues to launch airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip following Hamas' deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The Will County Sheriff's Office said a woman called 911 to report that her landlord had attacked her with a knife. Authorities did not initially name the victims, but the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil liberties organization, identified the boy as Wadee Alfayoume and the woman as his mother, Hanaan Shahin.

Czuba yelled "you Muslims must die!" as he choked Shahin and attacked her with a knife, she wrote in text messages sent to her son's father, according to CAIR-Chicago. They had been living in the home for two years, Ahmed Rehab, the group's executive director, said during a news conference following the attack.

Will County Sheriff’s Office via AP/Will County Sheriff’s Office via AP