(NewsNation) — The man accused of killing a 6-year-old Palestinian boy from Illinois and seriously injuring his mother because of their Muslim faith was denied bail in his initial court appearance Monday.
Officers found the boy and his 32-year-old mother late Saturday morning at a home in unincorporated Plainfield Township, 40 miles from Chicago. Police said the woman had called 911 to report her landlord attacked her with a knife. She then ran into a bathroom, and continued to fight him off, the Will County Sheriff’s Office said.
The boy was taken to the hospital in critical condition and later pronounced deceased by medical professionals. A post-mortem report revealed that the boy had been stabbed 26 times while his mother endured over a dozen stab wounds, according to the Will County Sheriff’s Office. The woman was hospitalized and is expected to survive.
Detectives determined that Joseph M. Czuba, a 71-year-old resident of Plainfield, had targeted both victims due to their Muslim identity and that he was driven by the “ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis,” the sheriff’s statement said.
Police identified the weapon used in the attack as a 12-inch serrated military-style knife with a seven-inch blade.
Authorities discovered Czuba seated outside near the residence’s driveway with a laceration on his forehead.
After receiving medical treatment, Czuba was questioned by detectives but declined to provide any statements regarding his involvement.
Detectives still gathered enough evidence through interviews to formally charge Czuba with first-degree murder, two counts of hate crime, attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Fitzgerald said in a court filing that she rents two rooms on the first floor of the Plainfield home while Czuba and his wife live on the second floor.
“He was angry at her for what was going on in Jerusalem,” Fitzgerald said. “She responded to him, ‘Let’s pray for peace.’ … Czuba then attacked her with a knife.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland said Sunday the Justice Department opened a federal hate crime investigation into the events leading up to the attack. He said in a statement that the incident raises “the fears of Muslim, Arab and Palestinian communities in our country with regard to hate-fueled violence.”
“We will use every legal authority at our disposal to bring to justice those who perpetrate illegal acts of hate,” Garland wrote. “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.”
The Council on Islamic Relations said that they were “shocked and disturbed” over the attack on the 6-year-old they identified as Wadea Al-Fayoume and his mom.
“The Islamophobic rhetoric and anti-Palestinian racism being spread by politicians, media outlets, and social media platforms must stop. Now.” the Council on American Islamic Relations said on X.
At a press conference, members of the Chicago Chapter of CAIR called what happened their “worst nightmare,” and part of a spike in hate calls and emails since war broke out. These include people yelling anti-Muslim insults and “classic Islamophobic tropes, to threats of violence and gloating at the death of civilians in Gaza,” CAIR said.
“Palestinians basically, again, with their hearts broken over what’s happening to their people, have to also worry about the immediate safety of life and limb living here in this most free of democracies in the world,” Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Muslim civil liberties organization’s Chicago office, said.
At the conference, the boy’s paternal uncle, Yousef Hannon, urged people to start seeing Palestinians as humans.
“We are not animals, we are humans. We want people to see us as humans, to feel us as humans, to deal with us as humans, because this is what we are,” said Hannon.
Local chapters of CAIR have also condemned other recent acts they say are motivated by hate, including threats allegedly made by a Michigan resident. The Detroit News reports that the 41-year-old man asked on Facebook if anyone wanted to “go to Dearborn & hunt Palestinians.”
New York CAIR members also called out NYC Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, who was arrested last week after pictures online surfaced of her with a gun during a pro-Palestinian rally at Brooklyn College.
FBI Director Christopher Wray previously warned of a rise in violent extremism amid fighting between the militant group Hamas and Israel, The Hill reported. In a call with reporters Sunday, Wray said the FBI is moving quickly to mitigate the threats.
A senior FBI official, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said agents have been encouraged to be “aggressive” and proactive in communicating over the last week with faith-based leaders. Agents are not doing this to make anyone feel targeted, the FBI official told the AP, but rather to ask clerics and others to report anything seeming suspicious to law enforcement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.