Man charged with hate crime in slaying

CHICAGO — A 71-year-old Illinois man accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old boy and seriously wounding his 32-year-old mother was charged with a hate crime Sunday. Police are accusing the man of singling out the victims because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas.

In the Chicago-area case, officers found the woman and boy late Saturday morning at a home in an unincorporated area of Plainfield Township, the Will County sheriff’s office said in a statement on social media.

The boy was pronounced dead at a hospital. The woman had multiple stab wounds and was expected to survive, according to the statement. An autopsy on the child showed that he had been stabbed dozens of times.

“Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis,” the sheriff’s statement said.

Joseph M. Czuba of Plainfield was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of hate crimes and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, according to the sheriff’s office. He was in custody Sunday and awaiting a court appearance.

Authorities did not release the names of the two victims, but the boy’s paternal uncle, Yousef Hannon, spoke at a news conference Sunday hosted by the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. There the boy was identified as Wadea Al-Fayoume, a Palestinian-American boy who had recently turned 6. The organization identified the other victim as the boy’s mother.

(AP/Chicago Sun-Times/Anthony Vazquez) At the home shown, a boy was killed and a woman critically injured after they were stabbed by a man who targeted them because they were Muslim in Plainfield, Ill., on Sunday.