The mother of the 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy allegedly stabbed to death by their landlord shared the youngster’s last words in a series of moving tributes — even as she was being treated for her own critical injuries.
Little Wadea Al-Fayoume was stabbed 26 times in Chicago early Saturday — allegedly by landlord Joseph Czuba, 71, as he shouted, “You Muslims must die!”
The youngster’s 32-year-old mother Hanan Shaheen was also left in critical condition with a dozen stab wounds — but still posted a series of tributes hours later, The Daily Beast reported.
“My son’s last words were: (I’m fine). May God have mercy on him and let him dwell in the highest paradise,” she wrote in Arabic, according to the outlet.
She also posted videos of her with Wadea, including on his Oct. 6 birthday – a day before the Hamas attack on Israel and 10 days before his brutal killing.
The clip shows the boy and his mother playing in a bedroom, as the child blows kisses toward the camera. Other videos show the pair playing and running outside and doing workouts.
“He is an angel. Basically a small angel in the form of a person. To this minute, I cannot believe how this could have happened,” his father, Oday El-Fayoume, earlier told The Daily Beast.
“It is hard to picture this man holding a knife about to stab my son. I keep thinking that my son was probably running towards him before getting stabbed, trying to give him a hug,” Shaheen’s ex-husband added.
On Monday, Czuba appeared in court, where prosecutors described how he had been closely listening to talk radio coverage of the violence in Israel, and was convinced his Muslim tenants were going to harm him as part of the “day of jihad” called for by Hamas leaders.
Shaheen told investigators she and her son were having breakfast together when Czuba knocked on their door.
“Czuba is an angry man, but, on the day in question, he came to the house and said he was angry at her for what was happening in Jerusalem,” prosecutors said the mother told investigators.
“Let’s give peace a chance,” she reportedly told Czuba, before he lunged at her with a military-style serrated knife and forcing her to barricade herself inside a bathroom while she called 911.
She couldn’t reach her son in time to bring him to safety, court documents showed.
Czuba will remain behind bars until his next court date on Oct. 30.
