US President Joe Biden on Sunday condemned the murder of a six-year-old Muslim boy who was stabbed near Chicago, denouncing a “horrific act of hatred”, linked according to police to the war between Israel and Hamas.
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The child, who received 26 stab wounds on Saturday, died in hospital. His 32-year-old mother is expected to survive, according to a statement from the Will County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois, which called the attack “heinous.”
“Investigators were able to determine that the two victims of this violent attack were targeted by the suspect because they are Muslim and because of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East involving Hamas and the Israelis,” the statement said, which specifies that the killing took place approximately 64 kilometers west of Chicago.
In a statement released Sunday, Mr. Biden confirmed that the woman was the boy’s mother and said their “Palestinian Muslim family came to America seeking what we all seek: a refuge to live, learn and pray in peace”.
“This horrific act of hatred has no place in America and goes against our fundamental values: the freedom to pray without fear, the freedom to believe and the freedom to be,” added the American president.
The mother managed to call 911 while fighting off her attacker, Joseph Czuba, 71, according to the sheriff’s office.
During the autopsy, a serrated military knife with a 15 cm blade was removed from the child’s abdomen.
“Our worst nightmare”
When police arrived, they found Joseph Czuba sitting near the entrance to the residence where the assault took place, his forehead marked by a laceration. He was taken to hospital for treatment before being charged with murder, attempted murder and two counts of hate crime.
“Deputies located the two victims inside the residence, in a bedroom. Both victims had multiple stab wounds to the chest, torso and upper extremities,” the sheriff’s statement said.
The head of the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Ahmed Rehab, told reporters that the assailant knocked on the victims’ doors and first tried to choke the woman, telling her: “You Muslims must die,” quoting text messages sent by the woman to the murdered boy’s father from his hospital bed.
This attack is “our worst nightmare”, underlined CAIR in a press release.
The war between Israel and Hamas, which has left thousands dead on both sides, mostly civilians, was triggered after a bloody and unprecedented attack launched on October 7 by Hamas against Israeli territory from the Strip. of Gaza under the control of the Palestinian Islamist movement.