The mother of the American Palestinian boy killed in Chicago’s suburban hate crime confesses at the trial News, sports, jobs

Joliet, ill. (AP) -a Muslim mother from Chicago suburban described the jurors on Tuesday as she hid in a closed bath and called 911 after her owner attacked a knife and then stabbed her young Palestinian son. American in another room.

Hanan Shaheen was the first witness to testify to Joseph Czuba’s crime and hatred crime and hatred. He is accused of hurting Shaheen and killed Wadee Alfayoui, six years old, in October 2023. Authorities said Czuba targeted the family because of their Islamic faith and in response to the war between Israel and Hamas who It broke out on October 7, 2023 with a Hamas attack on South Israel.

The prosecutors played emotionally by 911 the call Shaheen made to report the crime that happened just a few days after the beginning of the war.

“The owner kills me and my child!” She screamed in the dispatcher several times, according to a recording of the appeal played in court. “Kill my child in another room!”

The Czuba pleaded innocent for three charges of murder, a number of attempted murder and other accusations. He wore a suit and binds to the yard, with his creepy hair falling near his shoulders. Later he was tied in a chiff. Czuba did not speak while following the procedures.

One of his public defenders of Will County, Kylie Roulatti, asked the jurors to consider each sample carefully, because the key parts were missing.

“Go beyond emotions to carefully examine the evidence,” She said during the opening statements. “It is easy to lose yourself in the horror of these images.”

The family had rented two rooms from Czuba and his wife, who also lived at the house, where the crime was happening in the suburbs Plainfield, almost 40 miles (65 kilometers) by Chicago.

Prosecutor Michael Fitzgerald, a lawyer of Will County, told the jurors that they will hear explicit details about the crime, including how Czuba took a knife from the belt support and attacked the family. Fitzgerald described each of the 26 wounds stabbed on the boy’s body.

“He could not escape,” Fitzgerald said he is experiencing jurors during opening statements. “If it had not been enough for this defendant to kill that little boy, he left the knife in the boy’s body.”

Shaheen confessed to the court in the suburbs Joliet, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) by Chicago, that he had no problems in the two years they rented from Czubas. They shared a kitchen and living room with Czubas.

Then, after the beginning of the war, Czuba told him that he had to move because the Muslims were not welcome. She urged him to “Pray for peace.” Later, he faced Shaheen and attacked it, holding it down, stabbing and trying to break his teeth.

“He told me” that you, like Muslim, have to die “,” said Shaheen, who confessed mainly in English, but had an Arab Standby translator in her primary language. Occasionally he resorted to the translator for clarification while testifying. During cross -examination, she sought a more direct translation by addressing her translator who was sitting next to her instead of lawyers.

Defense lawyer, George Lenard, asked detailed questions about the conversations he had with the police on the spot and while in the hospital, but Shaheen said he did not remember the specificity.

Sometimes it appeared as if it had problems understanding what Lenard is achieved.

After the attack, Shaheen said he was scared and locked him in the bathroom, observing blood all over his body and room. She called 911 when she heard her son shouting in another room.

The cry could be heard against the background of the call, which Shaheen said is her son. While the records of about 15 minutes played in court, Shaheen put his head down, clasing a tissue paper. Lawyers showed photos with her bloody face at the hospital.

“It seemed shocked, very quiet,” confessed Sean Kozak, a police officer from Plainfield, who was first on the spot. “He trembled and looked.”

The boy whose name was initially written on Wadea Al-Fayoume by the authorities was later pronounced dead. Shaheen had more than a dozen stabbed wounds and it took weeks to recover.

Victoria Janovyak, a deputy of the sheriff in Will County, who found Wadee’s body, wiped tears while jurors watched pictures.

The video screen was removed from observers, including reporters and members of the Wadee family that were gathered. But the shock of the officers in the pictures was heard. Some could be heard shouting profane and “Oh, God!” When they saw the boy’s stabbed wounds. Another officer confessed that the knife was still in the boy’s body.

The boy whose name was initially written on Wadea Al-Fayoume by the authorities was later pronounced at a hospital. Shaheen had more than a dozen stabbed wounds and it took weeks to recover.

The attack on the Plainfield family has renewed the concerns of anti-Muslim discrimination in the Palestinian large and consecrated community in the Chicago area. The process also comes against the backdrop of a growing hostility against the US Muslims and Palestinians, since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023.

Hundreds of people participated in Janazah of the boy or in the funeral service, where the boy was remembered as kind in sports and law. In January, Shaheen met President Joe Biden.

Separately, the boy’s father, who is divorced from Shaheen and did not live at home, filed a wrong death process. He participated on Tuesday in the judicial procedures with an uncle.

Shaheen, who also submitted another civil process, kept the prominent lawyer of civil rights Ben Crump. He said Shaheen will not talk to reporters during the process, which is expected to last about a week.

“Hanan Shaheen continues the unimaginable fight for justice for Wadee.” he said in a statement. “We trust the efforts of the criminal prosecution of winning justice for Wadee and Hanan.”