A jury has found 73-year-old Chicago man Joseph Czuba guilty of first-degree murder and hate crimes in the "gut-wrenching" stabbing death of 6-year-old Wadea Al Fayoumi and the brutal attack on his mother, Hanan Shaheen—a crime politicians believe was triggered by "one-sided media coverage of Palestinians" and "Trump's calls for ethnic cleansing."
Czuba targeted the Palestinian-American family because of their Islamic faith and as a reaction to the Israel-Hamas war that began on October 7, 2023, authorities said. When the verdict was read, he reportedly showed no emotion.
