Illinois Landlord Accused of Stabbing Muslim Tenants, Killing 6-Year-Old Child Charged With Hate Crime

An elderly Illinois landlord faces murder and hate crime charges in a “heinous attack” on Muslim renters.

Hanaan Shahin, 32, is hospitalized with more than a dozen stab wounds and her 6-year-old son, Wadea Al-Fayoume, is dead after being stabbed 26 times with a military-style knife.

The Will County Sheriff’s Office said Joseph M. Czuba, 71, was arrested outside of his Plainfield home on Saturday.

Detectives said Czuba targeted the victims in the brutal attack due to them being Muslim, and the war involving Hamas and Israel.

The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) claimed Czuba knocked on their door and when Shahin opened it, he started choking her.

He then attacked her with the knife saying “You Muslims must die!”

President Biden released a statement on Sunday saying he was, “shocked and sickened to learn of the brutal murder.”

“This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are.”

The Justice Department opened a federal hate crimes investigation into the case.

“No one in the United States of America should have to live in fear of violence because of how they worship or where they or their family come from,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement on Sunday.