Illinois man found guilty of murder, hate crimes in 2023 killing of Muslim boy, 6

​​​​​​​By Darren Lyn

HOUSTON, United States (AA) - A jury in the US state of Illinois found a man guilty of murder and hate crime charges in the 2023 killing of a 6-year-old Muslim boy, media reports said Friday.

Joseph Czuba, 73, was charged in the fatal stabbing of Wadee Alfayoumi, a Palestinian American, and wounding his mother, Hanan Shaheen, on Oct. 14, 2023 in Plainfield, 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. The crime happened in Czuba’s home where the victims had been renting two rooms.

Prosecutors said Czuba targeted the family because of their Islamic faith and in response to the Israeli-Palestinian war that began one week earlier on Oct. 7.

The boy's father spoke at a news conference after Czuba was convicted.

"I don’t know if I should be pleased or upset, if I should be crying or laughing," said Odai Alfayoumi. "People are telling me to smile. Maybe if I were one of you, I would be smiling, but I’m the father of the child and I’ve lost the child. And I feel like this decision came a little too late," he said.

Because of the large Palestinian community in the Chicago area, the case generated headlines around the world and prompted the US Justice Department to launch a federal hate crimes investigation.

"All of us who are parents, who are Arab or Palestinian ... who are Muslim, we all saw our children die in Wadee Alfayoumi, because this could have been any one of our boys, any one of our girls," said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), in a statement. "It just so happened that it was Wadee Alfayoumi. When he was targeted, all of our children were targeted. Every Muslim was targeted when he (Czuba) yelled, 'All Muslims must die.'"

Czuba's sentencing is scheduled for May 2.