A 71-year-old man is in custody after Illinois police said he brutally attacked his tenant and her young child with a knife on Saturday, with local community leaders alleging he screamed anti-Muslim slurs as he stabbed them dozens of times. The Will County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Sunday that the suspect, Joseph Czuba, had been charged with a hate crime over the assault. Czuba was also charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, and aggravated battery. Police said that Czuba’s tenant, a 32-year-old woman, had called 911 on Saturday morning, saying she was hiding from her assailant in her bathroom. Deputies arrived on the scene at her home in Plainfield, a Chicago suburb, to find Czuba sitting outside. The woman was found inside and hospitalized with more than a dozen stab wounds. Her 6-year-old son, who had been stabbed 26 times, was pronounced dead after being transported to a hospital in critical condition. Ahmed Rehab, the executive director of the local chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said that Czuba “had been angry with what he was seeing in the news,” and had yelled “you Muslims must die!” during the attack.
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