Washington Post: Landlord convicted of killing Palestinian American boy dies in custody

Joseph Czuba had been serving a 53-year sentence for murdering 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and severely wounding his mother in a 2023 hate crime.

By Grace Moon

Joseph Czuba entering the courtroom for his arraignment in the killing of 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi, in Joliet, Ill., in 2023. Credit...Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press

An Illinois landlord convicted of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy and severely wounding his mother in a hate crime has died in custody, only months after he was sentenced to 53 years in prison.

Joseph Czuba was convicted in February of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery and two counts of hate crime for the October 2023 attack that sent shock waves through the nation. It took place a week after Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7 attack in Israel.

The 73-year-old died Thursday in the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections, the Will County Sheriff’s Office said in an emailed statement Sunday. The cause of Czuba’s death has not been disclosed.

Hanan Shaheen, 32, and her son, Wadee Alfayoumi, were renting a part of Czuba’s house in Plainfield, a suburb about 40 miles from Chicago, at the time of the attack.

Czuba knocked on Shaheen’s door around 11 a.m. the day of the attack. When she answered, he began assaulting her with a serrated military-style knife while yelling anti-Muslim remarks, The Washington Post reported. She was stabbed at least a dozen times before escaping to the bathroom to call 911. But Czuba found her son and redirected his anger toward him.

The boy died of his wounds, while Shaheen was hospitalized with severe injuries. He had been stabbed 26 times, authorities said.

Czuba had been amicable with the young boy and his mother, building the boy a tree house and allowing him to use the swimming pool, The Post reported. But his attitude turned hostile in the days leading up to the attack, according to family statements and officials, who said Czuba had asked the pair to vacate the house because they were Muslim.

In June, the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago unveiled a monument in memory of Alfayoumi as a “statement against the anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim hate that took his young life.”

Under the sentence handed down in May, Czuba had been set to serve 30 years for Alfayoumi’s murder, 20 years for the attempted murder of his mother and three years for hate crimes.

“There is no sentence that can be imposed to bring justice for the heinous actions Czuba took on Oct. 14, 2023.” Will County State Attorney James Glasgow said at the time.