With bandages still on her face after being stabbed a dozen times, a grieving mom described her murdered 6 year old as someone who “loved to share his love” by forming a heart symbol with his fingers.
Hanan Shaheen spoke to ABC News exclusively about the day she says her landlord attacked her and repeatedly stabbed her son 26 times at their rental outside Chicago.
“All his words are positive and good,” she said about her son Wadea Al-Fayoume. “He loved kisses and hugs. He cannot say goodbye without sending kiss.”
She spoke on the same day a Will County grand jury indicted Joseph Czuba on three counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, two counts of aggravated battery, and two counts of hate crime.
CBS News reports the FBI is now looking into federal hate crime charges. Shaheen told authorities Czuba wanted her to move out because he feared she would send her Palestinian friends after him. She is both Muslim and Palestinian. She says the two began to argue about the war between Israel and Hamas.
Prosecutors wrote in papers filed in court that “he (Czuba) was angry at her for what was going on in Jerusalem.”
Czuba has not entered a plea and has been ordered held in jail without bail. Shaheen says she wants both peace and justice.
“I trust in God, and God will give us good result,” she said to ABC.
AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.
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