JOLIET, Ill. — A Palestinian American woman whose 6-year-old son was fatally stabbed in an attack that prosecutors say was motivated by hate for Muslims amid Israel-Hamas fighting in 2023, described for the first time publicly Tuesday how her son watched in fear as their landlord stabbed her in the face, eye and chest before turning the knife on the young boy.
Hanan Shaheen was the first witness to take the stand in the trial of Joseph Czuba, 73, who is charged in the fatal stabbing of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of Shaheen on Oct. 14, 2023. Authorities said the family was targeted because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas that erupted on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel.
Shaheen, 33, recounted in graphic detail how she had been left blinded in her right eye and with limited vision in the other after Czuba stabbed her more than a dozen times. At one point, she said, Czuba put his fingers in her mouth and tried to break her teeth. As she struggled to fight him off, Shaheen said, she pulled Czuba’s white hair, while he shouted: “You must die!”
She said Wadee stood in the corner of a room they rented from Czuba in Plainfield Township, a suburb of Chicago, and watched fearfully as Czuba stabbed her. She testified that Czuba yelled: “Wadee, I will take care of you. I will raise you” and “don’t tell people I killed your mom” as he stabbed her.
“I am thinking it’s the moment, it’s the day I am dying,” Shaheen testified.
She said she was eventually able to break free, and while unable to see clearly, she ran to a bathroom to retrieve her phone to call 911. She said Czuba followed her with his knife and tried to gain access to the bathroom, so she locked herself inside.
Audio of the 911 call was played in court. Shaheen repeatedly told the dispatcher, “He is killing my baby.”
Shaheen testified that while she was on the phone with a dispatcher, she could hear Wadee shouting, “Oh no, stop!”
Shaheen kept her head down the entire time the recording was played at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet. She testified that she did not leave the bathroom until police arrived outside the bathroom door.
Prosecutor Christine Vukmir questioned Shaheen about the banging and screaming that she said could be heard on the call. Shaheen said Czuba had been banging on the door, trying to get into the bathroom and that the screaming was her son’s cries.
The attack took place at Czuba’s residence in Plainfield Township, about 40 miles southwest of downtown Chicago, where Shaheen testified she and her son had lived for about two years. Czuba rented two rooms to the mother and son. They shared a kitchen and living room with the Czuba and his wife.
Shaheen testified that she had told them she was Muslim and from Jerusalem when she met with them before renting the space, and she said they had not previously had any issues with the Czubas.
Shaheen was stabbed more than a dozen times and Wadee was stabbed 26 times.
Prosecutors have said Czuba had been listening to conservative radio coverage of the Middle East war in the days before the attacks on the mother and son.
“This happened because this defendant was afraid that a war that had started on Oct. 7, 2023, a half a world away in the Middle East, was going to come to his doorstep,” Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state’s attorney, told jurors in his opening statement.
“This happened because Hanan and Wadee were Muslim.”
Fitzgerald told jurors, “If it wasn’t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy’s body.” He said they would hear a conversation between Czuba and a sergeant from the Will County Sheriff’s Office, in which Czuba compared Wadee and Shaheen to “infested rats.”
Shaheen testified that in the days leading up to the attack, Czuba told her she needed to leave because he wanted to rent the room to a friend. She said he also told her, “Your people is killing Jewish and babies in Israel. Muslims are not welcome here. Not in my home.”
“I told him to pray for peace and went to my room,” she testified.
Days later, she said, he told her, “Muslims are not welcome” and that she needed to find some place else to live.
On the day of the attack, she said, Czuba was angry that she was still there.
Czuba, who was dressed in a suit and tie in court, is charged with murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery and two counts of a hate crime. Wadee’s father, Odai Alfayoumi, who did not live at the home, attended the court proceedings Tuesday.
Kylie Blatti, an attorney for Czuba, said in her opening statement, that “there are holes in the state’s case” and that “there is evidence missing.”
Blatti said prosecutors had shared their theory about what transpired that day, “but that’s all it is, it’s a theory.”
Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak ruled Thursday that she would allow the admission of statements Czuba made to a Will County Sheriff’s Office sergeant while he was in the officer’s car.
The sergeant had been taking Czuba from a hospital to the sheriff’s office, and during the trip, Czuba said he was afraid for his life and for his wife’s life, and he thought Shaheen would perform an “act of jihad” on him.
He also referenced a “massacre in Israel” and told the sergeant he had “begged” Shaheen to leave his residence but she would not.
The judge said she had reviewed the tape and determined the sergeant had not interrogated Czuba, and that Czuba had made the statements voluntarily. Prosecutors plan to use those statements to support the hate crime charges and make the case that Czuba had stabbed the pair because of their Islamic faith amid the fighting in Israel and Gaza.
Czuba’s attorneys had sought to block jurors from hearing the statements, arguing that the sergeant had subtly interrogated Czuba and that he had not read him his Miranda rights or instructed Czuba not to talk about what had occurred.
But the judge said the sergeant had repeatedly changed the subject, including by asking Czuba about his medical history, his time in the U.S. Air Force and other topics unrelated to the stabbings.
In an interview Tuesday, Johnny Simon, an attorney for Shaheen, who has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Czuba and his wife, said, “We’re looking forward to the justice system doing its job and holding Mr. Czuba accountable for the heinous actions that he took on that day.
“We’re not looking for an apology. We’re looking for justice.”
A panel of 12 jurors and three alternates were selected Monday. The jury of nine men and three women from Will County, a suburb of Chicago, includes a teacher, a mechanical engineer, a finance auditor, a commercial pilot and a retired construction manager. Almost all of them said they had heard or read about the case. The judge has instructed them not to read or watch news about the case.
The trial is expected to last about a week.
Selina Guevara reported from Joliet, Ill., and Janelle Griffith from New York.
