Joseph Czuba: Illinois Landlord Who Fatally Stabbed 6-Year-Old Palestinian-American Muslim Boy in Hate Crime Dies in Prison

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An Illinois landlord convicted of murdering a 6-year-old Palestinian-American Muslim boy in a brutal hate crime has died while in state custody

Joseph Czuba, 73, was serving a 53-year prison sentence for the 2023 murder of six-year-old Wadea al-Fayoume and the attempted murder of the boy’s mother, Hanaan Shaheen. 

He had served less than three months of his sentence at the time of his death.

Wadea al-Fayoume 

Joseph Czuba 


The attack happened in October 2023 inside a home in Plainfield Township, Illinois, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, where the family had been renting rooms from Czuba.

Prosecutors said the crime was motivated by anti-Muslim hatred and occurred just days after the Israel-Gaza war began. 

Wadea al-Fayoume was a Palestinian-American Muslim child, and because of his religious identity Czuba stabbed the boy 26 times. Wadea was taken to a hospital but later died from his injuries.

The victim’s mother, Hanaan Shaheen was also attacked during the incident and suffered severe stab wounds. 

According to her, Czuba attacker her first and made hateful statements during the attack, telling her, “You, as a Muslim, must die.” 

But she managed to run to the bathroom and locked herself, and that was the moment he went to fatally stab her son, as reported by BBC. 

Infact, because of her injuries, Shaheen was hospitalized and did not attend her son’s funeral. 

According to Law&Crime, a knife was still in the victims body when responding officers arrived,  and this bodycam footage below captures some of those chilling moments.




During the trial, jurors took less than 90 minutes to reach a verdict, and in May 2025, Czuba was convicted of:
  • Two counts of hate crime
  • One count of first-degree murder
  • One count of attempted murder
  • Two counts of aggravated battery
However, Czuba had served less than three months of his decades-long sentence when he died in custody at the age of 73.

Following Czuba’s death, Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), issued a statement warning that the problem did not end with the killer’s death.

“While this depraved killer has died, the hate is still alive and well,” Rehab said 

In June 2025, a memorial honoring Wadea al-Fayoume was unveiled at a playground in Plainfield. The city is home to a large and long-established Palestinian community.

The memorial serves as a reminder of a life taken by hate — and of a case that continues to resonate far beyond Illinois. 

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